


Dragonsinger: Tall Poppy Syndrome Exemplified

by silveradept



Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [4]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Ableism, Classism, Commentary, Flashbacks, Gaslighting, Gen, Intimidation, Meta, Misogyny, Nonfiction, Poor-Shaming, Sexism, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23203762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: A commentary read with excerpts of Dragonsinger, the second of the Harper Hall Trilogy, part of the Dragonriders of Pern novels.
Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663699
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Overture / The Best of All Possible Words

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Director's Cut of meta originally posted at [Slacktiverse](https://slacktiverse.wordpress.com).
> 
> Content notes for each chapter are in their respective posts, and all content notes in the work are in the tags.
> 
> Director's commentary will be rendered _[in a manner like this.]_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Overture to this particular chapter is from Candide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422-yb8TXj8), which also leads into [The Best of All Possible Worlds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PbPQ9VnxDM).

Greetings, one and all! It's time for the second book in the Harper Hall trilogy, Dragonsinger. In book one, Menolly overcame an abusive and toxic environment to be taken in as an apprentice at the Harper Hall, guest of the Masterharper himself, on the recommendation from her Hold's old Harper, Petiron. She also discovered and lived with several fire lizards outside of her Hold before eventually landing at Benden Weyr, courtesy of Threadfall.

The big questions on my mind are whether Menolly will be able to exact closure on Yanus and whether or not we will be able to get through a Pern book without some form of physical violence being done to a named female character. On that optimistic note, here we go.

**Dragonsinger, Chapters 1-2: Content Notes: prejudice, misogyny, sexism**

Dragonsinger picks up immediately after the end of Dragonsong, starting with Menolly's arrival by dragon at the Harper Hall. This is the first book examined to lack the super-spoiler-filled introduction, incidentally, despite having a similar cover style to Dragonsong before it.

We hit the ground running, however, with T'gellan really Not Getting It.

> "Don't worry so, Menolly. Just remember," said T'gellan, gripping her shoulder in awkward reassurance, "every Harper on Pern has been trying to find Petiron's lost apprentice..."  
>  "Because they thought that apprentice was a boy..."  
>  "That made no difference to Master Robinton when he asked you to come here. Times are changing, Menolly, and it'll make no difference to the others.  
>  [...]  
>  Great shells, girl, you've lived holdless, outrun Thread, and Impressed nine fire lizards. What's to fear from harpers?"

What, indeed? How about the Masterharper himself, who demonstrates for all of us more of that manipulative charm he displayed at the end of Dragonsong, declaring her Petiron's lost apprentice, and showing off her skill at collecting fire lizards, before getting to his actual point.

> "Furthermore," and he raised his volume above the raged cheers of approval, "furthermore, she found another clutch, which provided **me** with two eggs!"

Because nothing says "force for good, tolerance, and gender equality" like stepping on someone for your own self-aggrandizement. Again, Robinton had enough tact to celebrate Menolly first, but he's definitely earning the side-eye from me as someone to watch out for in case he turns out villainous. There's more plot summary from the previous book, as Menolly is hustled to bed by Silvina, headwoman for the Harper Hall, and a revelation that continues to make the official story about why Petiron neglected to mention Menolly's gender that much less likely to be anywhere resembling true.

> "Just like old Petiron to forget to mention you being a girl."  
>  "I don't think he forgot," Menolly said slowly, thinking of her father and mother and their opposition to her playing. "He told me girls can't be harpers."  
>  Silvina gave her a long hard look. "Maybe under another Masterharper. Or in the old days, but surely old Petiron knew his own son well enough to-"  
>  "Petiron was Master Robinton's father?"  
>  "Did he never tell you that?" Silvina paused as she was spreading the sleeping fur over Menolly. "That old stubborn fool! Determined not to advance himself because his son was elected Masterharper...and them picking a place halfway to nowhere...I beg your pardon, Menolly..."  
>  "Half-Circle Sea Hold **is** halfway to nowhere."  
>  "Not if Petiron found **you** there," said Silvina, recovering her brisk tone, "and sponsored you to this Craft...."

I think Menolly is getting suspicious about the story Petiron fed her, probably to keep her from getting too excited, and thus keep her away from Yanus and Mavi's abuse. It certainly makes my speculation about what really happened seem more plausible. Also, it suggests that what Menolly had to fear from the Harper Hall is the Harpers themselves.

Chapter One finishes with Menolly going to sleep, although with a little foreboding as she hears various voices, one of which she doesn't particularly like the sound of. She can't hear the content of the discussion, just the voices. Chapter Two is Menolly's first day proper as an apprentice, which starts with washing and then hitting the kitchen for food for her and the menagerie. Along the way, we see something that indicates either a really large tech jump or that shows how old the area now known as the Harper Hall really is.

> Directly in front of the staircase were dragon-high metal doors with the most curious closings she'd ever seen: on the back of the doors were wheels, which evidently turned the heavy bars into floor and ceiling. At Half-Circle Sea Hold there had been the heavy horizontal bars, but this arrangement would be easier to lock and looked much more secure.

Okay, so Pern has working examples of a counterweight locking system. (At least, that's how I'm imagining it). What I want to know is how the Harpers have managed to stop Fandarel from taking the doors off their hinges and back to the Smith Hall so he can analyze them and create replicas so every Hold has a secure locking mechanism against a Thread (or other threat) incursion. If I had to guess, it's that he can't convince a dragonrider to help him carry the doors home, once he gets them free, as such doors are undoubtedly going to be very heavy.

Anyway, Silvina is busily directing traffic in the kitchen as Menolly arrives. Rather than upset the kitchen, Menolly keeps the fire lizards outside, promising them food. Silvina greets her warmly, orders up food, wonders who botched the healing on her hand, and summons up help for Menolly to get everything outside. Here we get introduced to our first mentally disabled Pern resident, Camo. The good things: Camo is treated well by Silvina and the kitchen staff, and there's no indication that anyone thinks less of him for his disability - they understand that he does well with simple and direct instructions, sometimes repeated, and Silvina remembers to thank Camo when he does a good job. The bad: Well, Menolly mentally calls him a "half-wit", and Camo's speech patterns evoke the idea of Rain Man, with the repetition and such. And there's some described-as-gentle pushing that happens to get Camo moving in the right direction.

Also, he's fascinated by the fire lizards, and when the swarm arrives to eat in the courtyard, he stands completely still and enjoys seeing everything going on around him. Which will place him well above some of the members of the Harper Hall we will meet in due time.

So, chow happens out in a courtyard to the sounds of a choir learning and memorizing their Teaching Songs. And five of the fire lizards join in singing. Which brings Menolly into it as well, and for the song or so, there's only the music.

> They were on the last two measures of the chorus when Menolly suddenly realized that it was only herself and the fire lizards singing, that the male voices had ceased. Startled, she looked up and saw that almost every window about the courtyard was filled with faces. The exceptions were the windows of the hall where the voices had come.  
>  "Who's been singing?" demanded an irate tenor, and a man's head appeared at one of the empty windows.  
>  "Why, that's a grand way to wake up, Brudegan," said the clear baritone of the Masterharper from Stone point above Menolly and to her left. Craning her head up, she saw him leaning out of his window on the upper story.  
>  "Good morning to you, Masterharper," said Brudegan courteously, but his tone indicated that he was disgruntled by the intervention.  
>  Menolly tried to sit small, wishing herself **between** : she was certainly frozen motionless.

Good morning, Harper Hall. Nice to meet you?

This seems believable, though. In a place where music is the craft that someone learns, it makes sense that as many places as possible are acoustically sound. The only thing missing from this description is how loud everyone was singing. I would assume that it isn't actually very loud at all, because Menolly is still quite nervous and there's already singing going on, but Menolly is eating in the right place for the acoustics to carry her and the lizards' voices much farther than intended. Silvina arrives to rescue Menolly from embarrassment and ships her up to Robinton with his morning klah and breakfast, where Robinton and Menolly have a heart-to-heart.

> "Still not sure, are you, young Menolly?" He didn't mean the fire lizards' abilities. There was such kindness in his voice and eyes that Menolly felt unexpected tears behind her eyes.  
>  "I don't want to be a nuisance..."  
>  "Allow me to differ both to statement and content, Menolly..." Then he sighed. "You're overyoung to appreciate the value of nuisance, although the improvement in that choir is a point in my argument. However, is much too early in the morning for me to expound philosophy."  
>  [...]  
>  "We're in a period of change and readjustment, Menolly,"..."And you are likely to be a vital part of that change. Yesterday I exerted an unfair pressure on you to join the Harper Hall...Oh yes, I did, but you belong here!"  
>  [...]  
>  "First,"..."we must discover just how well Petiron taught you the fundamentals of our craft and what you need to further your gifts. And..." he pointed now to her left hand, "...what can be fine to correct that scar damage. I'd still like to hear you **play** the songs you wrote."  
>  [...]  
>  "We need you, when you can craft songs like those Petiron sent me and the ones Elgion found stuck away at the back of the harper's shelves in Half-Circle. Yes, and that's a matter I'd better explain..." he went on, smoothing the hair at the back of his neck and, to Menolly's amazement, appearing to be embarrassed.

Helloooooo, resolved plot point! Also, Menolly apparently hid them well enough that neither Yanus nor Mavi found them to destroy them (Yanus, remember, can apparently tell variant chords apart), which...suggests they didn't go looking for them? Or if they found them, assumed they were Elgion's? Or Elgion found them immediately upon arrival and sent them away as soon as he found them? I don't know, and Menolly doesn't ask.

Also, Robinton only appeared embarrassed here. Considering what we've seen of his apparently Jedi abilities at persuasion, I'm not sure I should ever trust anyone who comments on Robinton's state of mind. In any case, Robinton explains that he finished up Menolly's tune about the fire-lizards and praises her abilities, much to her chagrin, because recovering from an abusive environment takes time and positive reinforcement, and she promised Yanus, you see...

> "Menolly!"  
>  Startled, she looked up at his stern tone.  
>  "I want you to promise me - and you're now my apprentice - I want you to promise me to write down any tune that comes into your mind: I want you to play it as often as necessary to get it right...do you understand me? That's why I brought you here." He tapped the slate again. "That was a good song even before I tampered with it. I need good songs badly.  
>  What I said about change affects the Harper Hall more than any other craft, Menolly, because we are the ones who effect change. Just as we teach with our songs, so we also help people accept new ideas and necessary changes. And for that we need a special type of harpering. Now, I still have to consider Craft and standards. Especially in your unusual situation, the conventional procedure must be observed. Once we've dispensed with the signatories, we can proceed with your training as fast as you want to go. But this is where you belong, Menolly, you and your singing fire lizards. Bless me but that was lovely to hear this morning."

Have I mentioned yet about how Robinton understands what kind of power he wields in Pern? Because he clearly gets it. He's also trying to get Menolly over the fears and into his upper echelons fast. But he's not willing to bend his own traditions and the process to do it. It's probably mostly for the optics and to not appear like he's playing favorites with anyone, but it does mean that Menolly will be subjected to the culture of the Hall. Which is not likely to include female harpers and apprentices, so congratulations, Menolly, if you want to punch your ticket to doing what you've always wanted, you're going to have to run the glass ceiling gauntlet.

Robinton's philosophizing is interrupted with the arrival of Master Oldive, the healer, whose head is permanently slanted to one side, apparently, which makes him shorter than Menolly. Who is supposed to be tall, if I recall correctly. The slant comes from "a terrible malformation of his spine". Oldive checks over Menolly's feet and hands, giving her a cream for the feet and physical therapy exercises for her hands to stretch the scar tissue, break it down, and regain her full range of motion in her hand. After he leaves, Silvina returns to get Menolly settled in a dormitory, and they discuss Petiron and why he did so many things for her, but without telling her about the Harper Hall, lending still more credence to the idea that Petiron didn't forget to mention Menolly's gender, but that he couldn't. Silvina mentions that Menolly will need a gitar, which provokes a flashback for Menolly about the beating Yanus gave her when she supposedly went off script with the fosterlings. Menolly shows her reed pipes as a way of getting off that line of questioning. Fire lizard food logistics are discussed (and Silvina shuts down an attempt by Menolly to apologize for being a bother.), and they arrive to see Dunca, who oversees the women's quarters at the Hall. Menolly notices another of the metal doors, smaller this time. Again, Fandarel would probably want it.

Dunca promptly flips the fuck out at the presence of one fire lizard, dismisses the last resident of her available room as a "hysterical girl who'll panic during Threadfall and scare us all with imagining that Thread is actually _in_ the cottage", calls other girls (her drudge(s)?) "lazy sluts" for not having proper amounts of light in the cottage, freaks out at Silvina opening the shutters on the windows, and then goes into a complete panic as the other eight fire lizards arrive in the sparse room. 

All of which apparently amuses Silvina. Menolly can see the writing on the wall about how well she's going to get on with Dunca, but Silvina believes its all to keep the Hall women from falling prey to all the boys competing over them, that she may hold an issue because Dunca wanted to get Petiron after his wife died, and that she just fears change in general. Now, if I were an otherwise empathetic headwoman tasked with finding a good spot to sleep for my still-likely-emotionally-fragile charge and the only room at the inn has an innkeeper who will clash horribly with my resident, I'd say "Fuck this. Menolly, you can stay in the guest room for a little while longer while we wait for something better to open up." Because there is space elsewhere. But, because the narrative wishes it, Silvina has to let Menolly stay somewhere she's likely going to hate, with someone who likely hates her. Because the narrative still feels the need to punish Menolly, I guess? Or for cheap drama? Likely both.

In any case, Chapter Two closes with Menolly stepping into the instrument creation lab, to find Master Jerint and get herself a gitar.


	2. Mars, The Bringer of War / Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two movements from Holst's The Planets here: [Mars, the Binger of War](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmk5frp6-3Q), and [Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu77Vtja30c).

When we last left Menolly, she and her fire lizards had accidentally upstaged a teaching moment, been reassured by Robinton that she was going to do well, but would still go through the wringer like any other apprentice, and been shown where she would be bunking, despite the person in charge of the house showing signs of fundamental incompatibility with Menolly.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 3: Content Notes: Sexism, misogyny**

So Chapter 3 starts with the entrance examination. Menolly finds the workshop, and the noise is enough to send Beauty screaming to the rafters. The noise stops the work, and Master Jerint, after misgendering Menolly, is fascinated by the fire lizard until Master Domick comes by, gives Menolly some rude teasing, and re-sets the workshop to their tasks. Then come the instruments. Jerint reaches for a gitar, but Menolly stops him.

> "It's too green to have any tone."  
>  "How would you know by looking?"  
>  So, thought Menolly, this is a sort of test for me.  
>  "I wouldn't chose any instrument on looks, Master Jerint, I'd choose by the sound, but I can see from here that the wood of the gitar is badly joined on the case. The neck is not straight for all it's been veneered prettily."  
>  The answer evidently pleased him, for he stepped aside and gestured for her to make her own selection.

And she passes the first test, stepping around the room, feeling gitars, enjoying the sounds of one in a case, and reverently putting it back, correctly identifying it as a master's gitar (it's Jerint's) before settling on one hiding in the back that's missing an E string. Fingering chords that don't use the missing string, she seems happy, so Jerint gets a new string. Tuned up with a full complement of strings, Menolly strikes a few different chords and chooses it for her practice gitar.

Having chosen, Domick hustles her into a practice room and commands her to play. Only play, and no help from Beauty. Menolly's pride stings from the curtness, and so she tries to play one of the trickier songs, about a queen rider, Moreta, and manages fairly well, despite having to hit alternate fingerings for chords and completely borking a few chords because the scar won't let her stretch far enough to get the right fingerings. Domick betrays no emotion, asks her about the "liberties" she's taken with the Teaching Ballads and Sagas, to which Menolly counters that it was in a written copy at Half-Circle. Domick takes it in stride and has her play drum, lap harp, and play an accompaniment to his melodic line on a pipe. He asks about brass, then dismisses Menolly for food.

> "Master Domick, whose was this?" She asked the question in a rush, because she had a sudden notion it might be his, which could account for his curious antagonism.  
>  "That one? That was Robinton's journeyman's gitar." Then, with a broad grin at her astonishment, Master Domick quit the room.

Of course it is. Clearly, there's going to be a close relationship between Robinton and Menolly throughout, but I still don't trust Robinton enough to say that it will turn it to Menolly's benefit to have Robinton on her side.

Soon after finishing with Domick, the chaos of the schoolyard erupts as the lunch bell dings. Still unsure about everything, Menolly follows Camo's lead and gets seated in a group of apprentices, all boys. The apprentices generally regard Menolly as out of place, thinking she should be sitting with the other girls at the back of the hall, with one exception. First, however, there is food. The change in status for Menolly is reflected in the quantities of food offered to her, which she initially only takes a little of for fear of it running out. Once assured of her food security, Menolly will eat more heartily. This is the same way that Lessa reacted to food at Benden compared to Ruatha back in Dragonflight, which makes me wonder just where the Lords Holder sit on the food chain, because characters who move out of their holds seem to improve the quality and quantity of their eating immediately. This seems more in line with the time period of the Italian city-states, where the mercantile economy meant that you needed economic power, rather than martial power, to eat well. Then again, dragons. But underneath the dragon level, the power structure seems to be giving deference to the craft guilds before the land owners and those that produce the food. Maybe the power play that the Lords Holder tried back in Dragonflight would work here, although at the cost of pissing off the Harpers, which would likely be social standing suicide.

The apprentice to Menolly's left, who eventually introduces himself as Piemur, asks about the singing fire lizard incident from the morning, taking the perspective of someone who was being accused of taking liberties, but was successfully able to dodge the blame by virtue of being able to honestly blame something else. This is important for later.

_[Very much so. One of Piemur's strongest traits is that he's very good at getting out of trouble, although not completely. His other strong suit is that he observes very well and reports accurately. When he's no longer useful as a singing voice, this will lead to his retraining for the other part of Harper work — information work and spying.]_

Across from Menolly, however, is our first blatant example of sexism in the Hall.

> "She shouldn't be here," complained the lad immediately opposite Menolly. He spoke directly to Piemur, as if by ignoring Menolly he could be rude. He was bigger and older looking than Piemur. "She belongs with them." And he jerked his head backward, toward the girls at the hearth table.  
>  "Well, she's here now, and fine where she is, Ranly," said Piemur with unexpected aggressiveness. "She couldn't very well change once we were seated, could she? And besides, I heard that she's to be an apprentice, same as us. **Not** one of them."  
>  "Aren't they apprentices?" asked Menolly, inclining her head in the girls' general direction.  
>  "Them?" Piemur's astounded query was as scornful as the look on Ranly's face. "No!" The drawl in his negative put the girls in an inferior category. "They're in the special class with the journeymen, but they're not apprentices. No skill!"  
>  "They're a right nuisance," said Ranly with rich contempt.  
>  "Yeah, they are," said Piemur with a reflective sigh, "but if they weren't here, I'd have to sing treble in the plays, and that'd be dire! Hey, Bonz, pass the meat back."

Because girls can't be Harpers, despite, y'know, Menolly being right there. The way this is being set up, though, it doesn't sound like the girls are thought of very highly. It would be nice if it turns out they're all very talented, right? Since we haven't met them, I can hold on to that hope.

So more food gets requested from Camo from Piemur, using the same speech pattern as Camo, which produces laughter from the boys at Camo (possibly laughing at getting extra meat, but I don't think so) until it works, when they shut up.

_[I am familiar with the ways in which those with mental disabilities are mocked through their speech patterns and actions. Knowing more now of how we can work with people with neuroatypicalities, though, Piemur matching Camo to ask him to do something is a smart and effective strategy, despite the knuckleheads who want to make fun of him for it.]_

The apprentices grill Menolly for more information about the Impression from Benden in Dragonsong, after which the chores are assigned to the apprentices and Menolly's exam continues with Master Morshal, who teaches musical theory. Morshal has very little expectation of Menolly, but Piemur gives her an encouraging thumbs-up, despite being the shortest of the lot, missing a tooth, and with shockingly curly hair. Piemur is clearly a force for chaos against the Hall's attempt at order.

Morshal starts Menolly out easily - major chords, then example chords from other songs, then drum technique, fingering technique for pipes, and so forth, interjecting comments about her posture, harrying her if she pauses, always calling her "girl", and getting very annoyed when she asks to sit because of her feet. The barrage continues with written notation, and then with playing a song. Morshal picks the same song that Menolly played for Domick, and he insists that she play it as written, which we already know isn't doable.

> There were variations in the chords: two of which were really managed, but she flubbed the fourth and fifth because her scarred hand would not stretch.  
>  "I see, I see," he said, waving her to stop, but he liked oddly pleased. "You cannot play accurately at tempo. Very well, that is all. You are dismissed."  
>  "I beg your pardon, Master Morshal..." Menolly began, again extending her hand as explanation.  
>  "You what?" He glared at her, his eyes wide with incredulity that she seemed to be defying him. "Out! I just dismissed you! What is the world coming to when **girls** presume to be harpers and pretend to compose music. Out! Great shells and stars!" His voice changed from scold to panic. "What's that? What are they? Who let them in here?"

_They_ , asshole, are the fire lizards that have been roused by your unfair treatment and who are defending Menolly by attacking the thing that is attacking her. Bad enough that Menolly is getting sexism from the apprentices, once of the masters is a giant misogynist. Here's a good test for Robinton - there's no doubt he will hear about this, especially since Piemur is apparently lurking right outside the scene, so let's see what sort of action he takes against Morshal, or whether he lets it all slide. Piemur gets to pet one of the fire lizards and is also fascinated by them. Then he remembers he's suppressed to deliver Menolly to Master Shonagar, the Voice Master, and Piemur's clear favorite. Shonagar dismisses Piemur, and then lets on to Menolly that he's fond of Piemur and his cheeky nature, too. Shonagar's test is for Menolly to sing, without accompaniment from fire lizard or instrument.

> "Sing, not concertize. The voice only is important now, not how you mask vocal inadequacies with pleasant strumming and clever harmony. I want to hear the voice...It is the voice we communicate with, the voice which is the words we seek to impress on men's minds, the voice which evokes emotional response; tears, laughter, sense. Your voice is the most important, most complex, most amazing instrument of all. And if you cannot use that voice properly, you might just as well go back to whatever insignificant hold you came from."  
>  Menolly had been so fascinated by the richness and variety of the Master's tones that she didn't really pay heed to the content.  
>  "Well?" he demanded.  
>  She blinked at him, drawing in her breath, belatedly aware that he was waiting for her to sing.  
>  "No, not like that! Dolt! You breathe from here," and his fingers spread across his barrel-width midsection, pressing in so that the sound from his mouth reflected that pressure. "Through the nose, so..." and he inhaled, his massive chest barely rising as it was filled, "down to the windpipe," and he spoke on a single musical note, "to the belly," and the voice dropped an octave. "You breathe from your belly...if you breathe properly."

I'm nodding along with this explanation much like a bobblehead on a stimulant. Since Petiron didn't teach Menolly brass playing, he probably didn't talk much about the need to breathe from the diaphragm. Whether coaching voice or wind instruments, understanding the need to provide a proper foundation of air for the tone is something that separates learning musicians from more experienced ones. So it's nice to see some of the research being done here.

So Menolly sings for the Master, and he lets on nothing about the performance. He does give Petiron a backhanded compliment for not teaching Menolly anything about using her voice, instead leaving her up to him. It rattles Menolly and the fire lizards a bit. Shongar, of all the masters, however, realizes that the fire lizards follow Menolly's emotional state, which makes him the smartest of the lot at this point. He makes it a point to tell Menolly to bring the fire lizards with her to his lessons, so that they will learn how to sing better as Menolly does. He sends Menolly away, and falls asleep before she leaves. 

That's the end of Chapter Three. Menolly's first day hadn't finished, but we're already starting to see where the battle lines are going to be drawn. Will Robinton get involved, or will he direct the puppets from behind the scenes? We'll find out soon enough.

_[There's no sign of it here, but Master Shonagar is going to turn out to be much less pleasant and kind than the low bar that he's set for himself here, but he's the kind of person who seems to know who is expendable and who it would get back to if he were to treat Menolly like he treats all of the other apprentices.]_


	3. Le Carnival des Animaux

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter, take a stroll through [The Carnival of the Animals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SjagpXeNhM).

We've spent only a couple days at the Harper Hall, and Menolly and her fire lizards are the talk of everywhere. She's found some of the Masters sympathetic, and at least one that's biased against her gender, like many of the apprentices are. And Menolly has a dorm mother who hates her and change. Jury is still officially out on the other women who are studying music at the hall.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 4: Content Notes: Mocking the disabled, Queen Bees and Mean Girls**

We're still on Day Two of Menolly at the Harper Hall. Menolly has managed to not collapse through the examinations of the various Masters, but now she needs to feed the fire lizards. Camo is delighted to help, to the point where he abandons his duties to help feed. Piemur also appears and asks if he can help feed.

> "I've already got Camo falling over himself to feed..."  
>  "Pretty Beauty,'" and Piemur mimicked the older man's thick voice perfectly, " 'Feed pretty Beauty...' Oh, don't worry, Menolly, Camo and me are friends. He won't object to me helping, too."

I don't think she's objecting to your help, Piemur, at least not in my headcanon. She's unhappy because you're mocking Camo and then trying to pass it off as okay, because you're friends. Because Menolly has that most precious of resources, empathy.

The dinner bell sounds, and Menolly goes to the back table with all the other women for this particular meal. All the other girls enter together, and have a fairly uniform expression of disgust and disdain for Menolly. The leader of the girls introduces herself.

> "My name is Pona, my grandfather is Lord Holder of Boll." She held out her right hand, palm up, and Menolly, who had never had an opportunity to make the gesture of formal greeting, covered it with hers.  
>  "I am Menolly,"..."my father is Yanus, Sea Holder of Half-Circle Sea Hold."  
>  There was a startled murmur of surprise from the others.  
>  "She ranks us," someone said, rebellious and astonished.  
>  "There's rank in the Harper Hall?" asked Menolly, disturbed and wondering what other elements of courtesy she might unwittingly have neglected. Hadn't Petiron always told her that the Harper Craft, in particular, laid stress on skill and musical achievement rather than natal rank? But Piemur had said "You rank 'em."  
>  "Half-Circle is not the oldest seahold. Tillek is," said the dark-complexioned girl, rather crossly.  
>  "Menolly is daughter, not niece," said the girl who had mentioned outranking. She now extended her hands, less grudgingly, Menolly thought. "My father is Weaver Craftsmaster Timareen of Telgar Hold. My name is Audiva."

You can guess where this is going. Having basically been excluded from the regular structure of the Hall, the girls have formed their own hierarchy based on their lineage. I have but one question about all of this so far.

_[Unsurprisingly, it involves a cocowhat.]_

What. The. Fuck. Up to this point in the series, there has been no mention at all about any of this regarding ranking, inheritance, or anything else with even remote relation to some sort of complex system of primogeniture and status based on who someone's father is. We had an entire book set mostly in a Hold where all of this could have been explored, and then maybe compared to the structure of a Weyr, and finally, the supposed egalitarianism of the Harper Hall. Mavi or Yanus or Alemi or Sella could have talked about this with her, even if they think her the unmarriageable daughter. This could have been explained as to why Menolly knows what a formal greeting is, despite apparently never having had the opportunity to use it. This doesn't make much sense at all. Why is this appearing now...

...you know what else this reminds me of? _High school drama_. Which has zero need in this story, except as a provider of artificial drama. Which we already have, with the sexist teacher and the dorm mother who cannot stand her, and this is Menolly, who has been beaten by her father, gaslit by her mother and sister, and is still trying to feel out an entirely alien place to her. We have covered plenty of possibilities for drama without having to add a clique of catty women to this. Apparently, the narrative has had enough of competent and empathetic women in the books and wants more reasons why the men are totally justified in their misogyny.

But then there's this:

> Menolly are hungrily and quickly until she realized the girls were all taking half-spoonsful and breaking their bread and cheese into dainty bite-sized portions. Pona and Audiva watched her surreptitiously, and one of the other girls tittered. So, thought Menolly grimly, her table manners differed from theirs? Well, to change would mean anything that hers were faulty. She did slow down, but continued to eat heartily, making no bones about asking for more while the girls were still but halfway through their first serving.

Go, Menolly. _[Big time. There's more than enough body negativity in that room and in literature that having a girl character who eats enough and doesn;t give a fuck about whether she should be eating more or less Is fantastic and I wish there were more of them.]_ But also, we're being set up for Menolly to always be one of the Other compared to these girls. I'm hoping that the way this turns out is more Miss Congeniality (with Menolly in the role of Sandra Bullock's character) than Cinderella.

So the girls grill Menolly about the Impression, but not for interest in the process, but in how the social statuses of the men and women who were there have changed due to dragon. There's disdain from Pona about Menolly's menagerie, but Audiva deflects with some well-placed barbs about the boys Pona is chasing. The topic turns to why the dragonriders haven't sent flame crews to the Red Star to destroy Thread yet, but Menolly tunes it out because she's exhausted from her day, and stuck somewhere with way too many people, and her feet hurt. She wants alone time, so much so that she wants to go as soon as she sees people going, but apparently dismissal is done by rank, so she has to wait (earning more disapproval from Pona).

> She did not want to be among people, especially all these strange people who had odd notions and different manners, and seemingly, no sympathy for the newcomer. The Weyr had been big and well-populated, but she had felt at home there, with friendly glances and uncritical, smiling faces.  
>  "Your feet hurting again?" It was Piemur asking, his brows contorted in a worried scowl.

Piemur has apparently mastered the art of Not Being Seen, because he tends to appear out of seeming nowhere. He offers a shoulder to Menolly to get her back to Dunca's, where Menolly calls out for Dunca (this becomes important), then gets to bed, lets in the fire-lizards, takes off her clothes, uses the medicine for her hand and feet, and falls asleep. With her first day finally over, we end Chapter 4. 

Also, I'm still wondering what possible power Menolly might have by virtue of her rank. If she hadn't been beaten into submission by Yanus, and discouraged from anything by Mavi, it would make things so much easier for Menolly to say "Oh, I rank you? Well then, that makes me the leader, doesn't it? Starting right now, you're going to treat everyone here with respect and get Dunca to do the same thing." Not that the narrative would allow Menolly to just take control that way, but it certainly seems like a lot of grief would be avoided by letting Menolly exploit her newfound position to her advantage.


	4. Tempered Steel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Tempered Steel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AFZBHjigI). Which is usually stronger than other iron around it.

Last chapter, we finally closed out Menolly's first full day at the Harper Hall, which left her completely exhausted... and in the scrutiny of the other girls at the Hall, most of whom have coalesced into a clique that Menolly will never be good enough to join. Menolly, in return, has Groucho Marx'd all of them, except the one who appears to be friendly.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 5: Content Notes: Poor-shaming**

Day two starts with a shriek. Several, actually. Because Dunca sees that Menolly is in her bed, but the nine fire lizards are protective of anyone invading her space, and that only encourages the shrieking from Dunca until Menolly orders them out the window.

> This only changed the tone of Dunca's screams because the woman was now pointing at Menolly's nudity until she could snatch up the discarded shirt and cover herself.

_[Absolutely a cocowhat here.]_

__

__

Okay, so Menolly sleeps in the nude. To this point in the books, this is treated like a normal thing. Mirrim even helps Menolly get out of her clothes back in Dragonsong, and this isn't treated as some sort of Pern-shattering event. If the dragonrider culture were more consistently okay with all sorts of sex positivity, it would be an easier task to pin Menolly not being taken to task about nude sleeping as just one of those things dragonriders are okay with and everybody else isn't. Except that Menolly has spent time in her Hold, too, and nobody has apparently objected there, either. So what I'm forced to conclude is that Dunca has some sort of nudity taboo, or that these supposedly delicate Holdbred girls do, or both. Considering what sort of acid tongue was possible just by mentioning the possibility of Dunca finding one of the girls with a boy, I have a strong suspicion that this detour into "modesty" and purity culture values is all Dunca's fault. Which isn't necessarily bad on face, but it's in the same cartoonish over-the-top manner as the Mean Girl Squad that it becomes hard to do anything with it other than roll my eyes. And that's before we get to talk about the practicality of Menolly's choices regarding her lack of sleepwear later on. Suffice to say, this is fucking bizarre.

_[The farther we get into these books, the more wibbly-wobbly the question of whether young women are expected to behave modestly and primly in ways that would make fundamentalist evangelicals sing their praises gets. We're always supposed to assume that young women have value only in relation to their marriage prospects, but that's not actually spelled out anywhere, and it seems to only apply to women who might be married to other Holder / Lord Holder sons, all of these things presumably arranged in advance and according to the rank of the woman. Because the dragonriders are libertines and the Crafters don't seem to care. This is one of those places where the time and place of the writer has leaked through to their work, and the reader would presumably not question the structure, even without any textual insistence on it.]_

Having clothed herself sufficiently and calmed the fire lizards, Menolly is lectured by Dunca about the need to always check in with her when she returns to the cottage. (Which, we note, she did try to do before coming in, but Dunca didn't respond.) Menolly acquiesces, realizing that she can't fight Dunca and that Dunca is irrevocably prejudiced against her. Considering how far from Yanus and Mavi Menolly is, temporally, I would expect this to be standing on every one of Menolly's abuse triggers right now, but there's no indication of any mental distress at this point.

_[It's also entirely possible, now that Menolly has the measure of what her experience is going to be like at the Harper Hall, has started disassociating for her own safety, so that she can make it through the day without damaging her still-battered psyche from all the years of Yanus and Mavi's abuse.]_

There is snobbery, which Audiva breaks from when nobody is looking, and then more snobbery, this time about her fruit-stained shirt, for which her current spare is her clothes from her cave days.

Menolly takes her leave to go feed the fire lizards, collecting an extra round of scorn from Dunca about how she shouldn't be bothering Silvina and that Menolly is her responsibility while she stays at the Hall.

> "Don't get pert with me, girl. You may be the daughter of a Sea-Holder, but while you are at the Harper Craft Hall and in my charge, you are to behave yourself. We'll have no ranking here."  
>  Half-torn between laughter and disgust, Menolly rose. "If I may go, please, before the fire lizards come in search of me..."  
>  That sufficed. Dunca couldn't get her out of the cot fast enough. Someone sniggered, but when Menolly glanced up she wasn't sure if it had been Audiva or not. It was a small encouragement that someone had recognized Dunca's hypocrisy.

High. School. Drama. Where even the adults join in on the torture. Still, good on Menolly to fight back on the grounds that she can win on.

Also, if Dunca were really sincere about having no ranking in her house, she'd be getting after the other girls much more than Menolly. As the text is eager to point out for the woman, Dunca's a hypocrite.

Feeding with the fire lizards is the usual cavalcade of Camo abandoning whatever he was doing to help, much to the kitchen staff's consternation. Afterward, because Menolly has not been told where to go, after she asks for directions, one of the journeymen dismissively sends her to the women's class of music. Because, apparently, despite her giant welcome two days ago to the Hall, she's not remembered enough for people to recognize her as the new apprentice and be shipped off to Robinton or one of the other Masters.

Now, based on what we've seen of the girls here at the Hall, what do you think their skill with music is going to be? Since they're here, and getting instruction from members of the Harper Hall, there's every indication that these girls will be able to play competently, yes?

...if you said they're going to be awful at it, you remembered how much skill Menolly demonstrated yesterday. You also remember that the narrative has been setting up Menolly as an exceptional female compared to the other girls in all other aspects. The journeyman in charge of instruction, Talmor, is patiently trying to teach gitar. Poma cannot get basic fingering down, nor manage an alternative in time. Menolly runs the fingering silently, which attracts Talmor's attention. He asks her to run the exercise, in both alternate and regular fingering pattern, and she does. Audiva takes notice, and is trying to study her hands to replicate her skill. The other girls are angry at being shown up. 

Then Menolly gets to study new music - music meant to be played as entertainment after dinner and as background music for conversations. To Menolly, it's a very simple piece. Audiva is able to play it, although slower than tempo. Another of the girls can't really read the music. Pona can play with a little spirit, but not a lot of skill. Menolly gets a hack at it after everyone else, after Talmor is starting to show a fray at the edges.

> It was such a relief to play the music as it should be that Menolly found herself increasing the time and emphasizing the chords with a variation of her own in the strum.  
>  Talmor just looked at her. Then he blinked and exhaled heavily, pursing his lips together.  
>  "Well, yes. You've seen it before?"  
>  "Oh, no. We had very little occasional music in Half-Circle. This is lovely."  
>  "You played that cold?"  
>  Only then did Menolly realize what she had done: made the other girls look inadequate. She was aware of their child, chill silence, their hostile stares. But not to play one's best seemed a dishonesty that she had never practiced and could not. Belatedly, she realized she could have hedged: with her scarred hand she could have faltered, missed some of the chordings. Yet it had been such a relief, after their limping renditions, to play the music as it was meant to be played.

Riddle me this: **_Why?_** Why is Menolly even considering not playing to her full ability as a way of trying to get along with any girl not named Audiva? (Who is also apparently giving Menolly the evil eye over her playing ability, because the narrative only mentions Audiva breaking from the pack when it wants to.) These girls and Dunca have given her zero welcome, have made her feel completely alien instead of at home, and have gone out of their way to hurt Menolly, as we find out, by withholding the message that Master Domick sent in the morning to attend him for lessons. Yet Menolly has, to this point, met their disapproval and snark with pushback on her own terms and a few well-placed artillery barrages of her own. Why does she stumble here? If this is supposed to be vestigial from Yanus or Mavi, then Menolly should be thinking of something different than "Must try to get along with these girls!" I can find no reason in the narrative at all as to why this thought would enter Menolly's head, and the narrative is usually really good at providing reasons why it believes women with skills and progressive views should be hurt and try to conform. 

Relief from the uncomfortable stares arrives in the form of Sebell, the seniormost Journeyman studying under Robinton, and Menolly's partner in her apprenticeship. He takes Talmor's acidic remark that Menolly was misdirected in stride, deduces (with Menolly) why Menolly was not studying under Master Domick this morning (Dunca and the girls withheld the message), which upsets Menolly because she's convinced Domick doesn't like her, much to Sebell's amusement ("Master Domick doesn't like anyone," he says, "including himself. So you're no exception."), and then asks her all about life in a Sea-Hold on the way to rectify the problem, as "Harper business", so she doesn't get to ask questions. Sebell also obliquely references that Harpers do more than just play music - they're the spy network for Robinton all over Pern.

Before continuing, I'm going to point out that teaching is not, in fact, for everyone. In the most Menolly-friendly interpretation of this scene, Talmor is a reasonably competent journeyman and instructor, perhaps one that is taking his Masterclass that requires actual teaching to demonstrate his competency in a core requirement of being a Master Harper. His current crop of students are more difficult than most, because they're untrained and his usual methods of instruction aren't working. Menolly is thus a breath of air - a student with skill, possibly skill beyond his own, that should be studying with the Masters and not him.

In the less charitable interpretation, which seems more in line with what we've seen of the Harper Hall and Pern in general, Talmor is a journeyman currently the leader on a Master's shit list, probably Jerint, who has been assigned to the women's class as a punishment. He is just going through the motions of teaching and hoping soon for the time where he will be relieved of this torture of dealing with the airheads. Menolly is clearly in the wrong class, to him, because she has more talent in her pinky than any of these hopeless girls.

It doesn't bode well.

Before Menolly can pursue the line of inquiry about nonmusical Harper business, Sebell asks her about his fire lizard egg, in detail, and then in great detail about life in the Sea Hold, all the way to the lunch bell, where Menolly gets the silent treatment from all the other girls, a request to see Master Oldive after lunch, and then, the sound and fury of Master Domick about her missed appointment.

> "I realize," Domick went on sarcastically, "that you've been living holdless and without authority for some time, but while you are an apprentice here, you will obey the masters."

Hey, Domick?

Fuck you.

You have a student whose history includes physical and mental abuse, for which she carries visible scars, and you think the best way to approach them about an issue is to go in full-bore with verbal abuse, not allow her to provide explanation, and believe someone who you should probably know by now is no friend to the student. And because Menolly has reason to believe that a master that starts verbally abusive will progress to physical abuse (Yanus did, Mavi did), this is an extra dose of anti-empathy. Fuck you, you insensitive clod.

And a big hearty fuck you to the Harper Hall that allows him to terrorize students this way and passes off his abusive nature as just who he is, instead of demanding that he find a way to chill out or he can take the long walk to a far distant Hold.

The fire lizards, after the latest barrage, decide they are having none of this shit, and Beauty and the two bronzes enter the hall on attack vector, forcing Menolly to intercede and call them off. Which sends the other girls into a blind shrieking panic, and they scatter. Domick is unfazed by this display.

> "Master Domick," said another voice near the floor, and Audiva crawled from under the table. "Master Domick, Dunca told Menolly nothing about your message, but **we** knew all about it. Fair's fair."  
>  [...]  
>  "How did you contrive to alienate Dunca?" asked Domick, his expression sullen but less fierce.  
>  Menolly followed and glanced at the fire lizards.  
>  "Oh, them! Yes! I can quite see her point." There was no flexibility in Master Domick's attitude. "They do not, however, intimidate me."  
>  "Master Domick-"  
>  "That's enough, girl. Since you haven't the native intelligence to be tactful, I shall have to-"

Domick's threat goes unfinished, as Sebell arrives to deflect Domick away - Domick gives instructions to Menolly directly about what her afternoon and next day's morning will be, and waves off Sebell ("I'm not so lost to common sense as to punish her for being the victim of envy." he says, which is utter bullshit, because he was about to do just that) before departing. Once the coast is clear, Piemur appears from under the table, having heard everything, and gets Menolly to agree to let him help feed the fire lizards before vanishing to his chores.

Menolly sees Oldive, who gives her an exercise ball to do her physical therapy with, and some pain relief salve, and oils up Beauty when he notices skin cracking on her. The narrative attempts to gaslight us by having Menolly call Beauty's attack at Domick "deplorable" instead of "utterly justified", and Oldive scolds Menolly and tells her she needs to stay off her feet more before sending her on to Jerint for her afternoon lesson. Menolly heads back to Dunca's to collect her pipes, but overhears the other girls discussing her.

> "She's an **apprentice** ," Pona was shouting in strident and argumentative tones. "He **said** she was an **apprentice**. She doesn't belong with **us**. We've rank to uphold. She doesn't belong in here with us! Let her go where she does belong...with the apprentices!" The was a vicious, hateful edge to Pona's voice.  
>  [...]  
>  She did belong there [her cave from Dragonsong] because she'd made it **her** place. And really, what place was there for her in the Harper Hall, much less the cot? She might be called an apprentice, but she wasn't part of their group either. Ranly had made that plain at the dining table.  
>  And Master Morshal didn't want her to "presume" to be a harper. Master Domick would as soon she disappeared, for all he'd been willing to teach her. She **had** played well for him, scarred hands and all. She was certain of that. And she was clearly a far better musician than the girls. No false modesty prompted that evaluation.  
>  If her only use at the Harper Hall was to instruct people on being bogus seamen or turning fire lizard eggs, someone else could easily perform those services. She'd managed to alienate more people than she'd made friends, and the few friends she'd acquired were more interested in her fire lizards than they were in her. Briefly she considered what welcome she would have received if she hasn't bright the fire lizards or the two eggs with her. Then there would have been no fire lizard song for the Masterharper to rewrite. And he'd apologized to her for that. The Masterharper of Pern had apologized to her, Menolly of Half-Circle Sea Hold, for improving on her song. Her songs were what he needed, he said. Menolly took a deep breath and expelled it slowly.  
>  She did have music in the Harper Hall, and that was important! There might not be girl harpers, but no one had said there couldn't be girl song-crafters and that mightn't be a bad future.

Hooray, resilience, even if it is setting sights lower than the original because of the weight of the constant mental and emotional abuse the narrative has been throwing at Menolly. Also, Menolly wins the award for perceptiveness in a main character for this book. And I'm a bit worried, because women expressing "radical" ideas usually is followed by some form of physical abuse.

_[With time and perspective through this book and the next one, it becomes an almost certainty that all of the teaching masters are abusive at their students and this is considered to be an acceptable form of instruction. About the only ones we don't see receiving this treatment are the hopeless girls, and I think the implication is that if they were abused, the Lord Holders would be at the door immediately complaining about the problem of their damaged women. Which is not to say that there won't be teaching masters who think abusing women apprentices is exactly the right thing to do, but it won't happen for a few books, when we switch over to a Pern where women are present at all ranks of the Harper Hall.]_

Having buoyed herself sufficiently, Menolly returns to the task at hand of trying to get her pipes for Jerint's lesson, concentrating on where the pipes are, when all nine fire lizards return from hyperspace and drop the pipes into her hands. Menolly is delighted, and thinks this discovery is because of the harsh attitudes of the girls. Even though, earlier, other people were talking about training fire lizards to send messages. 

Anyway, onward to the Master Instrument Maker, who asks about the technique used to create her pipes (with a Menolly shudder at having to mention packtail), and then asks her to create a drum, which she does while he is supposedly working on a harp, but he is watching her work for some undisclosed amount of time. After she finishes, he sends her onward to Shonagar for her voice lesson. Which mostly consists of breath control and posture. As anyone who has sung can tell you, however, that's exhausting by itself. After Menolly has a seat, Shonagar has Piemur sing as an experiment to see if the singing fire lizards will sing with any voice. Menolly is surprised by Piemur's singing voice, and after a while and some encouragement, the singing lizards accompany Piemur's melody. Shonagar has essentially no comment and sends both of them on their way to feed the fire lizards and themselves. The kitchen has adapted to the schedule of the lizards, and Camo is waiting for Menolly, instead of abandoning something to help feed. Feeding the nine is much easier with two extra perches for them in the form of Camo and Piemur. 

At dinner, Piemur lets on that he's been banned from sitting near the girls' table because of something he did that rankled Pona, who complained to Dunca, who complained to Silvina. Menolly's esteem for Piemur rises with this disclosure. Menolly also figures out the easiest way to avoid having to sit by the girls is to be just a little late for dinner perpetually, and has a private laugh at the expense of the girls being afraid of Thread. Which is mean, but I'm giving Menolly a lot of latitude based on previous behaviors. After dinner, Robinton and Sebell ask Menolly to check their eggs, with very little mention of the heaps of abuse being pulled on Menolly, but the attention is enough for Menolly to come to the conclusion that her previous idealization of Harpers will have to be sacrificed to the demands of reality, with the narrative providing an exclamation point on the end by having Dunca swing a litany of complaints at Menolly about everything from her fire lizards to her need to be more respectful of the other girls. According to Dunca...

> Menolly's attitude was presumptuous, uncooperative, unfriendly, and discourteous, and Dunca was not having a tunnel-snake in her cot where the girls were as friendly and as considerate of one another as any fosterer could wish.  
>  After the first few sentences, Menolly raised that she could put forth no defense of herself or her friends acceptable to Dunca. All she could do was say "yes" and "no" at appropriate intervals, when Dunca was forced to stop for breath. And every time Menolly thought the woman must surely have exhausted the subject, she would set onto another imagined slight until Menolly seriously considered calling Beauty to her. The appearance of the fire lizard would certainly curtail the flow of abuse, but would irrevocably destroy any possibility of getting into Dunca's fair record.  
>  "Now, have I made myself plain?" Dunca asked unexpectedly.  
>  "You have," and since Menolly's calm acceptance momentarily robbed her of speech, the girl flew up the stairs, ignoring the stiffness of her feet and grinning at the explosive and furious reprimands Dunca made at her retreat.

And that's Chapter Five!

Frankly, I'm still trying to piece together why Menolly gives a fuck about Dunca, when she's already repeatedly come to the conclusion that Dunca hates her, the girls hate her, and nobody, except Audiva, intends to extend even the illusion of an olive branch to Menolly. Even though there's no reason to believe courtesy would be extended to her, we're supposed to believe that the girl who ran away from her Hold over parental abuse is so starved for peer acceptance that she'll keep trying to make friends with people who have no interest in it. Or, for that matter, with Dunca, because Menolly believes Dunca has power over her? This cartoonish group of Mean Girls runs completely counter to how everything else goes in this and the last book. Can they please be excised retroactively?


	5. Tank! / Darkness of the Unknown / Dear Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Start with [Tank!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rVnRwW0h8), then move on into [Darkness of the Unknown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ygh4k2AyBw), then from there, a soothing finale of [Dear Friends](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgBccEEtu64).

It's been a couple very eventful days for Menolly at the Harper Hall. She's been disillusioned of her lofty ideals of Harpers, has encountered the very finest in institutional misogyny, suffered the narrative's best efforts at verbal abuse from all sides, and discovered that properly-trained fire lizards are useful for a lot of things. Menolly also understands her worth as a person in the Harper Hall has a lot to do with her fair of fire lizards. She needs a break, or at least someone who likes her without reservations or ulterior motives.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 6: Content Notes: Sexism**

Chapter Six starts with an interlude, where Menolly gets to oil and express her affection for her fire lizards, who send her the pictures of their own exploits, and then Menolly takes a luxurious bath in the cottage, which the fire lizards join in on when Auntie Two gets dunked by one of the others, and finds the water to her liking.

I do like how, so far, the sanctity of the bath as a place to separate from the world and have positive experiences has not been violated. For as much awful goes on in the world outside the bath, inside is sacred space.

Menolly washes her clothes from yesterday and hangs them or to dry on her window, changing into her spare patched clothes. Cue Dunca complaining about inappropriate attire and going ballistic about the drying ledge, and some back-and-forth about where Menolly is headed to, despite Dunca not having heard anything. And the usual chaos of feeding, including Camo dropping whatever he was doing to come out. Really, at this point, it seems smarter to have Camo doing things that can be put down at a moment's notice until Menolly and the fair are fed.

The morning is to be spent with Domick, Sebell, and Talmor playing a new (for Menolly) piece of music. Menolly notices paper records in with hide records, but has her attention directed to the music before she can investigate further. Today is an exercise in sightreading, so Menolly studies her part for a short amount of time, thinking about alternate fingerings here and there, testing one, but otherwise skimming the music for anything interesting. And then they're off.

> It had been fun, always, for Menolly to play with Petiron, particularly when he had let her improvise around his melody. It had been a pleasure yesterday to see new music in Talmor's lesson, but now, the stimulation of playing with three keen and competent musicians gave her such impulsion that she seemed to be an irrelevant medium for fingers that had to play what her eager eyes saw. She was lost completely in the thrall of the music, so that when the rushing finale ended, she suffered a shock as keen as pain.  
>  "Oh, that was marvelous. Could we play it again?"

Domick tries to see whether Menolly had been warned about what would happen, because, you see, he just finished that composition this morning, and he is forced to conclude that Menolly is every bit as talented as the two journeymen have said and that she hinted at during her audition, who are both having a laugh at Domick's inability to comprehend what just happened.

> "That's enough. All right, so the joke's on me, but you'll have to admit that there was good precedent for my skepticism. Anyone can play solo..." He turned on the bewildered Menolly. "Did you play a great deal with Petiron? Or any of the other other musicians at Half-Circle?"  
>  "There **was** only Petiron who could play properly. Fishing leaves a man's hands too stiff for any fine music." She flicked a glance at Sebell. "There were a few drummers and stickmen..."  
>  [...]  
>  "Suppose you tell me exactly what you did so at Half-Circle Sea Hold, Menolly. Musically, that is. Master Robinton's been too busy to confer with me at any length."

So she does, at length and detail.

Before we continue, though, no, Domick, your skepticism is not warranted, because your audition process sucks. You asked her to play solo on a piece of her choosing, some basic pieces on various instruments, tested her ability to follow and improvise a bit, and accepted that as basically the sum total of her skill. You didn't ask her to sightread, you didn't have a prepared piece that would challenge players so they could show off what they really knew about instrumental music, you didn't push her audition to the point where she couldn't and then back off from there. You expected her to not be very good because she's a girl, I suspect, and so you deserve every bit of these two journeymen laughing at you. Shonagar did a better job at auditioning her than you did, Domick, and he never got to the part where she sang any actual music, because he could tell what her skill was. Yes, you're not overtly sexist like Morshal is, but you're still being sexist all the same.

Anyway, Menolly recounts the story we read in Dragonsong, and at the end, Domick seems willing to admit to what has already been demonstrated conclusively.

> "When Petiron was here at the Hall, there was no finer musician, no better instructor," Master Domick said quietly. "I had the good fortune to be his apprentice. You've no need to ever be ashamed of your playing..."

ASFDJHKOLARGHLEBARGLE. Argelfaster, Argelfaster, Argelfaster!

Petiron was held in that much esteem by you, Domick, and you apprenticed to him, and you knew that Menolly came recommended by him, and yet you... THIS? Great Maker, what was it going to TAKE for you to think that she might have some talent? This is an excellent example of institutional sexism at work - Menolly being female apparently is such a debit that she has to be on the level of the journeymen, or even Domick, despite being recommended by Domick's Master, before she can begin to be seen as equal. Menolly will have to be consistently better than everyone just to be good enough to Domick. Grah. And then Domick has the temerity to tell Menolly that she shouldn't be afraid to tell him what she really wants to do at the Hall. It's playing in a group, she says, and she thinks the experience was wonderful this morning, only...

> "I didn't play it right. I should have studied the music longer before I started playing because I was so busy watching the notes and time changes that I didn't, I couldn't, follow the dynamic markings...I **am** sorry."  
>  Domick bright his hands against his forehead in an exasperated smack. Sebell dissolved again into his quiet laughter. But Talmor just howled, slapping his knee and pointing at Domick.  
>  "In that case, Menolly, we will play it again," Domick said, raising his voice to drown out the amusement of the others. "And this time..." he frowned at Menolly, an expression which no longer distressed her because she knew she had touched him, "watching those dynamic signs, which I put in for very good reason. Now, on the beat..."

Menolly's earnestness is setting the journeymen off, but the rehearsal to follow gives Menolly insight into how the music should be played. And before we progress, I have to say that this is another one of those elements where it appears the research has been done - when sightreading new music, if you frak the melody, rhythm, key, or tempo, it's obvious to the audience. Dynamics, on the other hand, you can often get away with not doing and the music still sounds okay. They're often the thing that is hardest to pay attention to, especially in the kinds of compositions that Domick makes. So the apology, and subsequent facepalm, are quite natural for me to read.

The rehearsal is interrupted by an alarm signaling the onset of Threadfall that is described much like a fire or natural disaster siren, which again, tech level of Pern is what, exactly? Which makes all the fire lizards appear, but there's space for them and the rehearsal continues with new music and instrumentation until lunch. Where there are lots of questions for Menolly about Thread and fire lizards, until the alarm sounds again, indicating Threadfall directly above. Which also produces nine fire lizards on the mantel, sending up their own alarm at a high octave. To counteract the screams, Brudegan leads the choruses in a song that the fire lizards join in at Menolly's prompting, after being taken aback at the strength of the massed voices. Since it's still falling overhead at the end of the song, we get to hear "Moreta's Ride" for the third time in as many days, but this time, as a choral piece with fire lizard accompaniment. 

And Menolly conducting, which, thankfully, she does know how to do from leading evening singing. What's different to her is "the quality of the singers, their responsiveness to her signals, that made as much difference as chalk from cheese." The song tells a story that will eventually become a full book on its own, and what's important here is that Menolly eventually waves the humans silent and lets the fire lizards sing the last verse of the song. Which proves their vocal worth to Brudegan, and he retakes direction of the chorus until the all-clear sounds and everyone heads to their assigned post-Thread chores. 

Silvina flags down Menolly and asks whether or not her clothes had been sent forward from Benden Weyr. Menolly has no response, because she had no other clothes, which makes Silvina unhappy that she had to admit Dunca is right about the state of Menolly's clothing. Menolly is about to apologize...

> "Great shells, child, I'm not angry with **you**!" And Silvina took Menolly's chin and made her look eye to eye. "I'm furious with myself for not **thinking**! Not to mention giving that Dunca a chance to snipe at you! Only don't go repeating **that** , please, for Dunca's useful to me in her own way. Not that you talk much anyhow. Haven't heard you put two sentences together yet. There now! What have I said to distress you? You just come along with me." And Silvina took Menolly firmly by the elbow and marched her toward the complex of storage rooms at the back of the Harper Hall on the kitchen level.

Augh, the cluelessness, it burns! Let's see, Silvina, you just told an emotionally, mentally, and physically abused girl that her appearance wasn't up to par and that you expected her to have something better to wear, and you exhibited visible anger at this. What is the abuse survivor going to think? It's certainly not "Oh, she's not mad at me for any of this." Menolly is in panic mode, looking for flight opportunities so she doesn't have to fight a losing battle against someone with a higher status. If Menolly apologizes, perhaps the crisis passes without incident. It's a learned survival skill, Silvina. Which is why any time the Masters, or anyone else, for that matter, are visibly angry at Menolly, it's cringe-worthy.

_[Silvina doesn't let on why she thinks that Dunca is useful in her own way, but I suspect it has to do with her ability to keep the Hold girls in line, since there's already been talk about how they need to be kept seperated from the apprentices and the boys for their own sake. Putting someone in charge who's stubborn and convinced of her own rightness is probably what Silvina thinks those spoiled Hold girls need so they behave, and possibly even learn something while they're here. It's not a good look for anybody.]_

Anyway, Silvina shows Menolly the spare supplies room and picks out some clothes and fabrics for her, which Menolly starts to protest, before Silvina re-fixes her baleful eye on Menolly, cutting off the protest before it can start.

> "You may not be proud in yourself, Menolly. In point of fact, your modesty has done you great service, but you will kindly consider the change in your circumstances. You're not the youngest child in a family of an isolated Sea Hold. You're an apprentice harper, and **we** \- Silvina tapped her chest smartly with her fingers - "have appearances to maintain. You will dress yourself as well as, and if I've my way, better than, those fumble-fingered females, or those musical midgets who will never be more than senior apprentices or very junior journeymen."  
>  [...Silvina pushes Menolly into a chair and starts piling clothes on her...]  
>  "Now these," and from another chest Silvina extracted breast bands and underpants, snorting as she passed them to Menolly. "Dunca was quite incensed you'd no underthings at all." Silvina's amusement ended as she saw Menolly's face. "Whyever are you looking so stricken? Because you wore your underthings out? Or because Dunca's pried into your affairs? You can't honestly be worried what that fat old fool thinks or says or does? Yes, you can and you are and you would!"

Not that Menolly has a reason to, with as poorly as she has been treated, but it likely is that survival instinct trying to keep Menolly from making enemies that will hurt her, even though it won't help. Also, Silvina, physically pushing Menolly around is probably not the best way to have her develop assertiveness. I still don't understand how everyone expects Menolly to change so quickly, since it has only been a little while of actual chronological time since she escaped Half-Circle. Everyone expects her to think "I'm safe now! My true personality will now shine forth!" when the reality is that Menolly still needs to feel like somewhere is sufficiently home and welcoming before she can begin to build positive relationships and stay working through her issues with relation to the years of abuse that she has lived through up to this point. Even though Menolly is where she wants to be, she has yet to have a stable, happy home life. Even characters that should know better, or perhaps have an inkling of knowing better, are all privilege-blinkered enough that they can't figure out how to actually help.

Also, we continue to have issues with exactly what Menolly looks like. Silvina says she's all leg, but is collecting "breast bands" for her, which are likely supposed to function like brassieres, but that would imply that Menolly is not just all legs at her age, and that she should not be so easily mistaken for a boy as she is. So we continue to have Menolly shifting back and forth between one or another body image. I hope the waveform collapses.

> "Don't think I've missed Pona's little tricks, or Dunca's. No, the cot is the wrong place for you. I thought so when you first arrived, but the were other reasons for plunking you there at first. So we'll take the long view, as should be done, and shift you here. Oldive doesn't want you on your feet so much, and sure as Fall'll come again, the fire lizards are as unhappy at Dunca's as she is to have them. The old fool! No, Menolly," and now Silvina was angry with Menolly, "it is not your fault! Besides which, as a full harper apprentice, you really haven't anything to do with the paying students.[...]"

I personally believe that the "other reasons" Silvina is talking about is "the narrative made me put you there because it wanted you to suffer." Because the narrative still wants Menolly to suffer, despite what happened in the last book.

And now I know why everyone had such a dim view of the women at the Hall. A place like the Hall wants to distinguish its residents based on their talents, and so people who pay their way in to receive the instruction are admitting that they don't have the talent to get in on their merits. The institutional sexism present couldn't possibly influence why it's only guys that ever seem to make it into the Hall on their merits, not at all. Also, with them being "paying girls", it's supposed to help us cement that these are the mean rich girls who don't care about the music, and are instead there to play politics games and possibly learn a little talent enough to get themselves a husband. Only Audiva looks to be more complete than that, and that's only because the narrative has been signaling very hard that she's more complete. Surely we can have more complete and deep characters than the Mean Girl Squad here.

Anyway, Silvina says Menolly is coming back to the guest room she was at, flippantly suggesting she'll strip the room of the finery. Menolly thinks it's a good idea, and seriously negotiates it out so that nobody thinks of her as putting on airs or thinking of herself as better. She does take an extra apprentice cot for the fire lizards as a concession to their extra weight. After everything is properly arranged, Piemur arrives to take Menolly to Master Shonagar. Since she has no post-Thread chores, he insists she comes to him to continue voice lessons. And he "did roar and bellow and carry on" about Menolly not being there and he makes her promise that she'll be there, no matter what. Shonagar, are you going to join all the other Masters as someone who doesn't care and show empathy, or am I going to be able to pass it off as you blustering for Menolly's benefit, but that you weren't really mad about any of it? Not that I think it's a good move on your part, Shonagar, because Menolly is still the recovering abuse survivor.

_[He's certainly not nice to Piemur, that's for certain. So it's entirely probably that he was fully serious about it then, which I'm sure raises his esteem in the eyes of his apprentices. Ptui._

Anyway, Chapter Six finishes with that exchange. So answers to those questions will have to wait until another time.


	6. As I Feel, You Feel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [As I Feel, You Feel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5eAFgK2fC0). Which has much less volume than what Menolly will be feeling this chapter.

Last time, Menolly endured Threadfall, helped Domick get past his stereotypes, and realized she wasn't going to win a battle of wills with Silvina. Which had the added benefit of removing her from Dunca and the other Mean Girls as should have happened at the beginning of this book.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 7: Content Notes: Intimidation, evidence of gaslighting**

Chapter Seven begins with restless fire lizards and, by extension, a restless Menolly, who runs down the checklist of things that could agitate her fair, and gets nothing other than an increasingly agitated set of fire lizards, reacting to some distress from very far away.

> Suddenly, their terror erupted in her with such intensity that she cried out.  
>  "Don't!" Her injunction was spontaneous. She tried to throw up her arms to protect herself from this unknown danger, but her hands were lizard-bound. Their fear was completely and utterly hers. And, incoherently, she repeated the cry, "Don't! DON'T!"  
>  In her mind, out of nowhere, Menolly received an indelible impression of turbulence: savage, ruthless, destructive; a pressure inexorable and deadly; churning masses of slick, sickly gray surfaces that heaved and dipped. Heat as massive as a tidal wave. Fear! Terror! An inarticulate longing!  
>  A scream, heard in her mind, a scream like a knife upon raw nerves!
>
>> "DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!
> 
> Menolly didn't think she had cried out. She was, as far as she could think sanely, certain that she hadn't heard the cry, but she knew the words had been spoken at the extreme of someone's anguish.

So, hey, you know that thing where Brekke and Lessa can communicate with all dragons and not just their own? Apparently, that extends to dragons and fire lizards a very long way away from them, when they're in pure terror. Since Menolly has nine fire lizards, she gets a far clearer picture of what's happening, even to the point where she screams out what Brekke is screaming. We knew that Lessa could influence others around her with her mental powers, but being able to talk to all dragons is apparently a sign of those abilities, as Brekke's call summons all of Menolly's fire lizards, the dragon of a rider that's currently at the Hall, and even sets the watchwher at Fort into alarm.

And speaking of alarms, Menolly's shouting has summoned the senior staff to make sure she's okay, with Morshal taking the role of "just a silly girl and her hysteria" before being sent away by Silvina and Robinton. The return of the fire lizards allows Menolly to pass along where they were (Benden), what happened (Canth and the Brown Rider Rapist in a deadfall), and whether the terror has passed (it has). Which is Silvina's signal to clear everyone out but Robinton and Menolly, who tells him about her fire lizards retrieving her pipes from the cot, and receives reassurances that Ruth and Jaxom are okay, as well as some amusement about how training fire-lizards to run messages is tougher than expected, in return. Before Silvina drugs Menolly to sleep, Menolly hears that the fire lizard of the Fort Lord Holder reacted the same way, with the same nightmare played before his eyes. 

After she wakes, Menolly is filled in on the details of what happened, with Menolly's mind backgrounding working out the new information about fire lizards, as she and Silvina eat and then check in on Robinton's eggs. Camo and Piemur took care of the morning feeding of the fair, to their delight. As they finish checking on the eggs and trying to figure out how they can get Robinton to be in the right place at the right time, Silvina calls down to Piemur, whom I suspect she knows had been hanging around outside the window, to fetch Sebell and convey to Master Shonagar that Menolly will be late for her lesson.

> "Piemur! Piemur, ask Sebell to step up to the Harper's room, will you? Menolly? Yes, she's awake and here. No, she can't attend Master Shonagar until Sebell arrives. Yes? Well, go through the choir hall **to** the journeymen's quarters and give Master Shonagar **my** message. Menolly answers to Master Robinton first, me second and **then** any of the other masters who require her attention."  
>  Menolly fretted about Master Shonagar's certain wrath while Silvina made her wait until Piemur had found and returned, at a run, with Sebell.

This continues to bolster my belief that the headwoman is the person who is really in charge of any large institution on Pern, for all that the men posture and claim to be the person in charge. Nobody crosses Silvina if they know what is good for them. Not that it stops Shonagar from expressing his opinion on the matter to Menolly.

> Despite Silvina's reassurance, Menolly was apprehensive as she made her tardy arrival before Master Shonagar. But he said nothing. He kept looking at her until she nervously began to shift her weight from foot to foot.  
>  "I do not know what it is about you, young Menolly, that you can disrupt an entire Craft Hall, for you are not presumptuous. In fact, you are immodestly modest. You do not brag nor flaunt your rank nor put yourself forward. You listen, which I assure you is a pleasure and relief, and you learn from what you are told, which is veritably unheard of. I began to entertain hope that I have finally succeeded, in a mere slip of a girl, the dedication required of a true musician, an artist! Yes, I might even coax a real voice out of your throat." His fist came down with an almighty wallop on the sandtable, the opposite end flapping onto its supports. She jumped. "But I cannot do much if you are not **here!** "  
>  "Silvina said..."  
>  "Silvina is a wonderful woman. Without her the Hall would be in chaos and our comfort ignored. Master Shonagar said, still in a loud tone. "She is also a good musician... ah, you didn't know that? You should make the occasion to listen to her singing, my dear girl... **But,** " again the voice boomed, Master Shonagar's belly bouncing, although the rest of him seemed stationary, "I thought I had made it plain that **you are to be here without fail** every single day!"  
>  "Yes, sir!"  
>  "Come fog, fire or Fall! Have I made myself plain enough?"  
>  "Yes, sir!"  
>  " **Then**..." and his voice dropped to normal proportions, "let us begin with breathing..."  
>  Menolly fought the desire to giggle. She mastered it by breathing deeply and then settled quickly to the discipline of the lesson.

And it's that last line that makes me hesitate on how to interpret it. If Menolly were just frightened the whole way through, it would be easy to say "Fuck it, Shonagar, you're just as bad as the rest of them. Is there nobody here who has a shred of empathy about how difficult it is to be the only girl apprentice and to come from an abusive background?" Because Menolly giggles at the end, though, I think we're supposed to reinterpret what sounds like a thundering tirade as Shonagar performing all of this with a wink and a nod, perhaps so that Piemur, who is probably hanging around outside, doesn't get it into his head that Shonagar has a soft spot for excuses originating from Silvina, or that Menolly is somehow getting special treatment and his friendship with her could be used to soften Shonagar at a critical moment. Since I'm still of the opinion that Shonagar is the smartest and most empathetic of the Masters there, with the exception, perhaps, of Jerint, I'm giving him the benefit of a charitable interpretation, and the narrative is excluding the subtle signals that clearly communicate to Menolly that he's not mad at her at all, but doing this because appearances must be kept up.

Or that's a nervous giggle, and everything in the preceding paragraphs should be wiped in favor of a giant fuck you to Shonagar for terrorizing Menolly like that.

_[With what we learn in later books about Shonagar, I'd be more inclined to lean toward the mean interpretation rather than the forgiving one, but the narrative does such a good job (albeit unintentionally) of showing us how people who have been abused have hypervigilance and that their judgments tend to be skewed in the direction of "whatever keeps the abuse away" rather than a more "objective" evaluation, so that uncertainty is, regrettably, all too accurate.]_

After practice, Menolly returns to Sebell, who has been playing for the fire lizards. Menolly gives him a few pointers about how to interpret the feelings of a fire lizard (it's all in the eyes), where to scratch them for pleasure (eye ridges and wing joints), and some other matters on the care, feeding, and teaching to sing of fire lizards. Camo arrives with food and makes Menolly promise he'll help feed the fair tonight, the tone of which "suggested that too many promises made to Camo were conveniently forgotten" to Menolly. Sebell reviews his fish knowledge as they eat, and shares stories of his own apprenticeship, before the two of them work on one of Domick's new assignments until Sebell calls it quits on account of his hands not being able to catch up. Which leads to some conversation about what it is that Sebell actually does as a Harper, and the differences between Menolly's songs and Domick's and what Menolly should think about one of her compositions having been spread Pern-wide.

> "What your have to do now is learn how to push your music without losing its freshness. That's why it's so important for you to study with Domick. He has the discipline, you have the originality."  
>  Menolly could not reply to that assessment. There was a lump in her throat as she remembered the beatings she'd taken for doing exactly what she was now encouraged to do.  
>  "Don't hunch up like that," Sebell said, almost sharply. "What's the matter? You've gone white as a sheet...."  
>  [...Sebell leaves, Menolly ruminates...]  
>  They were still twiddles, her songs, unlike the beautiful, intricate musical designs that Domick composed. But if she studied hard with him, maybe she could improve her twiddles into what she could honestly call music.  
>  Firmly she turned her thoughts toward the gitar duet and ran through the tricky passages, slowly at first and then finally at time. One of the chords modulated into tones that were so close to the agonized cry of the previous night that she repeated the phrase.  
>  [...]  
>  By the time Menolly had arranged the chords in the plaint to her satisfaction, Beauty, Rocky, and Diver were softly crooning along with her. So she studied on the verse.  
>  "Well, you approve?" she asked her fair. "Perhaps I ought to jot it down or something."  
>  "No need," said a quiet voice behind her, and she whirled on the stool to see Sebell seated at the sandtable, scribing quickly. "I think I've got most of it." He looked up, saw the startled expression on her face and gave her a brief smile. "Close your mouth and come check my notation."  
>  "But...but..."  
>  "What did I tell you, Menolly, about apologizing for the wrong things?"  
>  "I was just tuning..."  
>  "Oh, the song needs polishing, but that refrain is poignant enough to set a Hold to tears."

This is an illustrative sequence, I think, because it nor only shows us that Menolly is still dealing with the memories of the past, it shows us how far she still has to go, for her own confidence. She doesn't compose unless she thinks there's nobody there - a habit learned from Yanus - and she's very quick to dismiss the whole thing as "twiddles" and "just tuning", also a habit learned from Yanus. After all, if she's going to be a successful Harper, there's anyways the chance that she'll have to perform for an audience with him in attendance. Or that he'll learn who the composer of these interesting songs is and decide that she has properly disgraced his Hold and come looking for her to abuse her more. And Menolly is comparing herself to Domick, a Master with much more time composing, as the standard for which music is. It's all in the service of showing us how much Menolly is still reflexively hiding her talents, because they seem to get her in trouble with anyone not Sebell, Silvina, or Robinton. Who, by the way, is listening at the door as Sebell plays the tune to make sure that everything is correctly notated. Double embarrassment squick for Menolly, as both Sebell and Robinton try to reassure her that this is what they went looking for her to do.

Before Menolly can fling herself from the room, though, the fire lizard eggs are ready to hatch. Under Menolly's direction, Robinton collects a bronze and Sebell a gold. Also attending, Lord Groghe, the Fort Hold Lord Holder, brought by Merga, his queen fire lizard. Who gets Menolly to agree to teach him how to train his fire lizard.

> "Well spoken." Lord Groghe turned his heavy torso in Silvina's direction, favoring the headwoman with a fierce stare. "Well-spoken child. Not what I expected. Can't trust other people's opinions. Never did. Never will. I'll arrange something with Robinton later. Not too much later. But later. Good day to you all."  
>  [...]  
>  "What did Lord Groghe mean, Silvina? I'm not what he expected?"  
>  "I was afraid you'd catch that," Silvina said, her eyes narrow with a contained anger. She patted Menolly's shoulder absently. "There's been loose talk, which has done them no good and you no harm. I've a few knees to set to knocking, so I have."  
>  Menolly was thoroughly and unexpectedly consumed with anger.

Ooh, I think Menolly has finally had the last straw with regard to Dunca and the Mean Girl Squad. Silvina claims she'll handle the issue, and that Menolly is to concern herself with Harper business. Sebell tells Menolly to drop the issue as well, to copy the music sent up instead.

_[Which reminds me that we're not going to get to see an opportunity for Menolly to punch Yanus out, or even send a "Fuck Off and Die" letter, or anything else that might help her get closure from the previous life. Presumably, now that she's a Harper, she doesn't have any reason to do it, because new life, but stories don't have to follow the reality that many of us get no opportunity at a satisfying closure or taunt to those who have hurt and wronged us.]_

So Chapter Seven ends with Sebell naming his queen Kimi, and Menolly copying music, supposedly "with a good heart". But I believe this is the first time we've seen Menolly about to boil over with anger. This might be a turning point between the girl trying to make everyone nor notice her or be happy with her and a girl more intent on being assertive about her position and how fair these girls are treating her, and what they're doing to prejudice others against her.


	7. The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbp9WXQjZy8). Something that Menolly hasn't done yet, despite all of the things being thrown at her.

Last chapter, Menolly assisted in the Impression of two fire lizards, composed a new song after Brekke psychically broadcast her anguish to the world, and may have finally given us a reason to break out [Beware The Nice Ones](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BewareTheNiceOnes), as Menolly has (potentially correctly) deduced that Pona is poisoning other people's opinions of her, by the way Lord Groghe reacted in surprise to meeting her. Both Silvina and Sebell have warned her away from getting revenge, but considering that all Menolly has received for being a good girl whose only heterodox idea is that girls can be Harpers is scorn, sexism, misogyny, and disdain from the other girls and most of the Masters at the Hall, I think it will be nice to see Menolly step outside the Good Girl box. Fisticuffs would be even better.

**Dragonsinger, Chapter 8: Content Notes: Misogyny**

Chapter Eight's proper action starts with Piemur looking for the sign that the will be a craft fair, since it's a restday and there's no Thread due. The isolation of Half-Circle Sea Hold means Menolly knows what these craft fairs are, but that she hadn't been to one in nearly seven years, because the traders stopped coming when Thread started falling. So, basically, seven years in isolation for Menolly, which must have suited her abusive father just fine, since no new ideas or information could get in to his domain.

And then there is this:

> Piemur was thoroughly disgusted with her obtuseness. "Marks! Marks! What you get in exchange for what you're selling at a gather?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out four small white pieces of highly polished wood, on which the numerals 32 had been incised on one side and on the other, the mark of the Smithcraft. "Only thirty-seconds, but with four I got an eighth, and Smithcraft at that."  
>  Menolly had never actually seen marks before. All trading transactions had been carried out by her father, the Sea Holder. She was astonished that so young a boy as Piemur had possession of marks and said so.

Okay, firstly, yet another way Yanus controlled his family, by controlling their money. Secondly:

_[One cocowhat.]_

Pern has money.

_[And another cocowhat, for emphasis.]_

**_Pern has money._ **

Which really cements the idea of Pern as a steampunk version of the Italian city-states. With time-traveling, hyperspace-hopping dragons and alien spores, that is. But also makes the feudal idea of the Lords Holder even more ridiculous, as there are now two very different reasons that the feudal idea should have long since evaporated. The dragonriders hold the martial power and could have steamrolled the Lords Holder at any point they wanted to, and the Crafthalls hold the economic power, through producing goods and by controlling the monetary system. There really is no reason for the Lords Holder to exist as anything other than ceremonial lords, once structures can be constructed that can withstand Threadfall, or be hardened against it, or once it's certain that the dragonriders can basically ensure that Threadfall is a non-issue with regard to destruction of property and crops. The Holds may function as cities for trade and other economic functions, but that's all they should be at this point.

Secondly, this is clearly fiat money that's being used, even though it's divided in ways that suggest it should function more like real money. The wood used in the construction of the mark pieces has no intrinsic value, because it's stamped with a value, rather than being a segment of a coin with actual value (for example, in very old England currency, the penny was a whole coin, the half-penny half of a penny coin, and the farthing a quarter of the penny coin). And fiat money needs either a store of valuable material to draw on, or the power of the monopoly of violence (and usually both) to actually work the way it's supposed to. So the Crafthalls might have the valuable materials, which are...? But theoretically, the Holds have the monopoly on violence, even though it's really the Weyrs that have said monopoly, so I would expect any money to be minted in the names and badges of the Holds or the Weyrs, not the Crafthalls. 

And Piemur's implication is that the various Crafthall marks have differing values, with the Smithcraft marks superior to most, if not all of them. Which makes me wonder what, exactly, a mark is worth. Some sort of bushel of goods from each of the crafts? A precious metal value of some sort? There has to be some exchange rate between marks and goods (and that's in the control of the Crafthalls, so the Holders can easily have their power eaten away by inflation) or the whole system would collapse. And this is a worldwide system, because even isolated-at-the-end-of-the-world Menolly knows what marks are and their usage. I suppose we don't see it from the dragonriders, because their goods are a protection racket, but it would seem that they should have mentioned it at some point earlier? (That does assume that there is a plan in place from the beginning, or at least Dragonquest.)

Money, based on the world we've seen so far, makes no sense at all. Especially as an established system that just hasn't been mentioned until now. _[And the more we think about it or try to make sense of it in later books, the less sense it makes. It's just a book, it's just a book…]_

Back to the action. There is the care and feeding of fire lizards, now with two new members and their hatchlings. Both Sebell and Robinton make their way to the feeding ground with their screamingly hungry fire lizards - and in doing so, both gain an appreciation for how Menolly has juggled nine, and get the angry side-eye from Domick and Morshal for having their rest day sleep interrupted by the fire lizards. Morshal gives Menolly an angry look as well as Robinton, as if he blames her for it. Robinton tells Menolly not to worry about it.

> "Fortunately," he went on, "you don't have to sit classes with Morshal."  
>  "I don't?"  
>  [...]  
>  "No, you don't. Morshal teaches only at the apprentice level." The Masterharper sighed. "He really is adept at drilling basic theory into rebellious apprentice minds. But Petiron already taught you more than Morshal knows. Relieved, Menolly?"  
>  "Oh, yes. Master Morshal doesn't seem to like me."  
>  "Master Morshal has always considered it a waste of time and effort to teach any girls. What good would it do them?"  
>  Menolly blinked, surprised to hear her father's opinion echoed in the Harper Hall. Then she realized that Master Robinton had been speaking in deft mimicry of Master Morshal's testy manner. Warm fingers caught her chin, and she was made to look up at the Harper. The lines of fatigue and worry were plainly visible, despite his good night's rest.  
>  "Morshal's dislike of the feminine sex is a standing joke in this Hall, Menolly. Give him the courtesy due his rank and age, and ignore his biased thinking. As I said, you don't have to sit classes with him. Not that Domick will be any easier to study with...."

Oh, for fuck's sake. Robinton, you're all talk when it comes to actual change in your Hall, if you're going to just excuse Morshal's misogyny like that. You just mentioned that all he does is teach apprentices. If you were serious about wanting change, especially to Menolly, you would have sent Morshal to retirement a long time ago. Failing that, send him to the Smithcrafthall, where he can soak in Fandarel's neverending quest for efficiency and it's gender-equalizing effects until Morshal understands that women are as good as men at many things, including Harpering. By saying "oh, he's harmless. Ignore what he says and treat him as a doddering old man." ignores that Morshal, by virtue of his position, is able to poison the minds of all the apprentices he has to teach with his misogyny, all but guaranteeing that it passes on to the next generation. It means that you have to work twice as hard, if not more, to undo that teaching before being able to instill the change you want. And Robinton has already seen how that teaching causes him problems - Petiron's missing apprentice was assumed to be a boy, because Everyone Knows, Harpers included, that only boys can be Harpers. Petiron omitted that detail deliberately so that Robinton, or anyone else, wouldn't be prejudiced against Menolly before they had the opportunity to see and hear her work. It's like the attempt at being virtuous that Robinton is spinning is being blocked by a narrative that intends to hurt its women as much as possible. Seriously, though, Robinton, how can you be such a matter of intrigue and manipulation and not see what's going on here? Morshal is the most obvious misogynist, and you haven't sacked him yet. And then you'll have to deal with Domick, and possibly Shonagar as well, since they're not necessarily doing well with Menolly, either.

After feeding the fire lizards, Robinton gives Menolly a two-mark piece and some instructions to collect a new belt, something pretty for herself, and some bubbly pies that Robinton says Piemur knows where to find. Menolly turns toward feeding herself, where, after some discussion of how the fire lizard distribution went down, the boys turn to their tactical ability to maximize goods, including delicious bubbly pies, from their marks collected. Sebell interrupts with more questions about care and feeding of fire lizards, and then Menolly spies the Mean Girl squad and has several very impolite thoughts about what sort of revenge she could take on them, including pulling out Pona's hair by the roots. Audiva is spared a kind thought, because she's been nice, or at least fair, to Menolly so far. Menolly tries to distance those thoughts from herself, but they persist until she distracts herself with Robinton's assignment to rewrite her Brekke song. So, before the gather, Chapter Eight finishes. No violence yet, but whatever switch that has flipped in Menolly that has her ready to fight back is not turning back off. Next chapter promises to be action-packed.


	8. Dancing Mad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Dancing Mad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFCM0SKbnY). You know, what Menolly is right now at the treatment she rceived at the hands of Pona, Dunca, and the like?

Last chapter, we discovered that Robinton isn't really all that serious about change, and that Menolly is going to get herself some satisfaction if the Mean Girl Squad gives her an opportunity. And that Menolly is properly loaded with money for the craft showing that will happen this chapter.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 9: Content Notes: Flashbacks**

The beginning of this chapter starts in the mess hall, with Piemur giving advice to Menolly to keep the fire lizards out of sight, in case someone decides that a Harper apprentice with a fire lizard is too odd for them and Menolly has to defend herself. And then we're off to the gather, where Piemur first has some instruments to offload to the marksman for the spending cash he's going to distribute to himself and his compatriots - having gotten a master's stamp on the instruments, they can be sold without having to be honest about who created them. And there is haggling in earnest, which Menolly is fascinated by. She sees the dance and the rhythm and that there's structure and rules to the process.

Of note in this process is that my previous assessment of each craft having their own set of marks appears to have been incorrect, as the marksman bears the badge of the Smithcraft. And secondly, in terms of "what is a mark worth", a tambourine made by a journeyman harper is apparently worth four marks. So Menolly's two mark piece is half of a handmade instrument. [One of the commenters in the original post] in the last post suggested that a full mark is equivalent to a day's work for a Crafter - so four days to make a tambourine sounds right.

Also, I'm not sure whether to conclude that the marksman having a Smithcraft badge means the Smiths control all monetary exchange rates, making them the most powerful Craft, hands down, or whether each Craft operates their own exchange, presumably on terms favorable to them.

Business concluded, Piemur distributes profits, earning himself a quarter mark commission from each of the others, and then takes Menolly to the pies, where Menolly's presence and Camo's arrival means nine pies for the price of six, and Piemur collects some new tactics to use (Menolly tried to pay for the pies with her large coin, but was waved off by Piemur and the piemaker. Piemur thinks flashing a big coin early on might net him more pies for his smaller coins that he'll show later). There is a bit of an issue with Camo getting himself dirty on the pies, and then Piemur explains to Menolly that Robinton giving her the mark piece indicates that she's his special apprentice, like how Piemur is to Shonagar.

Then comes shopping. Menolly heads to the tanner, where Piemur points out a belt to get, and then tries to get the tanner to focus on getting Menolly new boots, since hers are getting worn down. And by name-dropping her. And in strolls Pona.

> "Here, Menolly, what do you think of this hide?" asked Piemur.  
>  "And make sure she has the marks for it," said Pona, pausing. Her voice was too smooth to be insulting, and yet her manner gave her words an offensive ring. "For I'm certain she's only wasting your time and will finger your wares dirty. Whereas I want you to commission you to make me some soft shoes for the summer..." She held up a well-filled waist pouch.  
>  "She's got two marks," Piemur said, turning to challenge Pona, his eyes flashing with anger.  
>  "If she does, she stole it," replied Pona, abandoning her indolent manner. "She'd nothing on her when she was still permitted to live in the cot."  
>  "Stolen?" Menolly felt herself tensing with fury at the totally unexpected accusation.  
>  "Stolen, nothing!" Piemur replied hotly. "Master Robinton gave it to her this morning!"  
>  "I claim insult from you, Pona," cried Menolly, her hand on her belt knife.

Freeze it. It's about to become important, so I have to mention that all of the Mean Girl Squad is accompanied by a man. Pona's is named Benis. As was mentioned in the last post, his function is one letter off from his name.

Also, Pona suggests that Menolly was "permitted" to live at the cottage, like she or Dunca really had a say in whether Menolly would be able to live there. It's a nice trick to accumulate power to herself and to try and convince everyone around that she's the good guy here. I think it's supposed to shred any lingering ideas we might have that Pona is something other than Evil Incarnate and the source of any and all negative rumors about Menolly.

Third, where did Menolly pick up such a formal phrase as "I claim insult from you" and the knowledge of how to deploy it contextually? Certainly not from Yanus Sea-Holder, who showed no signs of caring about formal anything, except when dragonriders are involved. Perhaps some part of the Lessa song cycle involves the duel with Fax? Additionally, that claim sounds like something that would be expressed between equals, and Craft apprentices are supposed to be without rank. And with Menolly's "immodest modesty", the last thing we would be expecting would be for her to pull rank as a Holder daughter to do this.

That said, remember when I said that Menolly was looking for an excuse to get satisfaction from Pona? Pona just handed her one on a wooden platter.

So what's the Mean Girl leader to do when she's about to get her ass handed to her? If you said "hide behind the man accompanying her", gold star for you.

> "Benis, she's threatening me!" Pona cried, clinging to get escort's arm.  
>  "Now, see here, apprentice girl. You can't insult a lady of the Holders. You just hand over that mark piece," said Benis, gesturing peremptorily to Menolly.  
>  "Menolly, don't take insult," Audiva pushed her way past the others and grabbed her arm, restraining her. "It's what she wants."

Ah, there we go. That's the right reaction from Benis to the situation. Now, stepping in to take money from Menolly is stupid, but I somehow doubt Benis is chosen for his brains.

Audiva valiantly tries to stop the oncoming storm, but Menolly won't be denied, Pona won't back down, and Benis is going to do what Pona wants. The tanner realizes this too late and tries to step in, but Menolly grabs for Pona's hair, likely with that intent to rip it out, and the fight is on. Benis grabs Menolly and twists her arm behind, giving Pona free access to her belt pouch. Until Piemur kicks Benis in the shins, which releases the grip enough that Menolly's strength, "developed by Turns of hauling and handling heavy nets", is enough to get her free. Piemur grabs Pona by the hair and...

> "I settle Pona!" she shouted to Piemur, beckoning him away.  
>  "Benis, save me!" Pona screamed, rushing to the young Holder, but Piemur was still hanging on to her plait.  
>  Benis let fly a kick at Piemur, tripping him up and added another one to the ribs as the boy measured his length in the dust.  
>  "Leave him alone!" Forgetting her quarrel with Pona, Menolly launched herself at Benis. Putting shoulder and body behind her fist, she drove it right into Benis's face. He staggered back, roaring in outrage and pain.

Because Menolly will help her friends first. Also, well struck, Menolly! It's not who you wanted to beat on, but it's going to leave a solid mark all the same. And it will continue to make the readers wonder what your actual body structure is, because that kind of wallop loudly proclaims an athletic build, rather than the one Silvina was trying to find pretty feminine underclothes for.

The fight threatens to escalate, as Menolly's agitated state brings ten allies to the field, nine fire lizard, one Camo, who have very little trouble at all going straight for the Mean Girl Squad and their escorts. Before it can properly be turned to a rout, though, the Masterharper calls for immediate cessation of hostilities, with the kind of tone that suggests a far worse state awaits those who disobey. Pona's attempts to lie about what happened are cut off and, from a sweet-voiced Robinton, she and the other two loyal girls are sent off back to the cot. Benis, already showing signs of Menolly's handiwork, is sent off with the other fosterlings on the threat of having Lord Groghe informed about the truth of what happened, without Robinton breaking his sunny-looking disposition. Camo is calmed by showing that the fire lizards aren't hurt, and then the tanner gives full account of what he saw, Audiva contributes that Pona is acting out of prejudice, and all the onlookers, Audiva, and her escort are dismissed to the rest of the gather, with Robinton's assurance to Audiva that Pona won't be bothering anyone in the future. The emotional agitation has attracted Lord Groghe through his fire lizard, and he is diverted by Robinton with the promise of good wine from Benden, and Sebell, who has one burning question.

> "I have only one burning question. Who had the audacity to give Benis a colored eye?"  
>  "A rare sight that was," said the tanner who'd been keeping back but now stepped up. "The girl landed as sweet a punch in the young snot's eye as I've ever seen, and I've been to many a gather that boasted a good brawl[...]."

And for that, the tanner gifts Menolly the belt she was looking at, considering seeing Benis get his comeuppance payment enough. Sebell wisely indicates to the tanner, Ligand, that this is not a tale with repeating, and impresses the same on Piemur.

Perhaps due to the bleedoff of her intent to make Pona pay for all the insults she's given, when Sebell mentions her new song and Piemur is immediately interested, Menolly has a triggering experience.

> "It's just that...it's so different..." She stammered, unable to express the upheaval in her mind, the reversal of all that she had been expected to do. "D'you know...d'you know what used to happen to me when I wrote a song?" She tried to stop the words that were threatening to burst from her, but she couldn't, not with Piemur's face contorted with distress for her. And Sebell quietly encouraging to speak with the sympathy so plain on his face. "I used to get **beaten** by my father for tuning, for twiddles, as he called them. When I cut my hand..." she held it up, looking at the red scar and then turning it to them. "[...]gutting packtails, they let it heal all wrong so I wouldn't be able to play. They wouldn't even allow me to sing in the Hall, for fear Harper Elgion would figure out that it was me who taught the children after Petiron died. They were **ashamed** of me! They were afraid I'd disgrace them. That's why I ran away. I'd rather have died of Threadscore than live in Half-Circle another night..."

And the response is empathy - crude empathy from Piemur (he says he loves her songs and he'd teach her father a lesson or two) and awkward empathy from Sebell, but empathy nonetheless.

The implications here, though, are that Menolly hasn't told anyone about her experiences, but then, neither has Robinton, who is in the best position to know, or have collected the story from Mirrim and the others at Benden, with the way that the Masters and everyone else is treating her. Oldive had been healing her hands and feet with only the knowledge of "cut her hand with fish" and "outran Thread and a layer of her foot skin"? Nobody knows why she was living out there on her own and collected the nine fire lizards? (Maybe Silvina does, but she doesn't have enough pull with the Masters to get them to change, or at least demonstrate empathy to her.) This continues to be odd - for as much as Robinton says that he wants to keep Menolly and use her songs for change, he's very bad at taking care of Menolly's mental state. He's more interested in what she can do and has done for him than in her specifically. Robinton, you're a manipulative ass.

Chapter Nine ends with Menolly heading to the winemaker for an appointment with Lord Groghe to talk about the care and training of fire lizards, with more of the healing process underway.


	9. Feel Good Inc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Feel Good, Inc.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k), officially, or perhaps if you'd like a more metal version, [Feel Good, Inc. by Frog Leap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNENVZFHutQ). Having hit someone solidly, I think Menolly's got at least a little of Feel Good in her.

Last chapter, Menolly was finally able to get some of her aggression out against Pona and the Mean Girl Squad, although she only threw one punch, and it gave a Lord Holder's son a fine black eye. It's not Yanus, or even Morshal, but we'll take it.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 10: Content Notes: Sexism, violent intent, gaslighting**

This is the third chapter we are spending on the gather day, and it begins with Menolly advising Lord Groghe and the other new fire lizard symbionts about how to get their lizards to do things - it takes strong emotion. And all the other things she knows about fire lizards. And some about Half-Circle Sea Hold, where Menolly gets to assert that she is a Harper, instead of a Sea Holder. Which is great to hear from her.

The entertainment for the evening is something akin to a square dance, with callers and instruments and a lot of dancing. The intermezzo is Brudegan and a chorus, which is accompanied by the fire lizards in attendance, which sets up a clamor for the fire lizard song. Groghe, Brudegan, and Robinton all insist that Menolly come up to sing her own song, with new wording, as her turn at being a Harper at a gather.

It goes well, in that Menolly collects a lot of applause for the song and then sings one from Half-Circle, and Robinton is very happy with her performance. 

The second dancing group arrives, and everybody wants a dance with Menolly afterward - Talmor, Audiva's escort from earlier, Brudegan, Domick, then Piemur. Menolly's songs are requested so much that she squirms in embarrassment. But eventually it is time for the care and feeding of fire lizards, which makes Camo and Piemur happy, and finally, gather day concludes.

The morning has Menolly attend the Masterharper, who is having trouble with just one lizard, and then feed her fair with Camo and Piemur. Domick comes soon after to pressure her into another quartet rehearsal. She's still got to copy her new song for the Masterharper, but she has no copying tools. So Domick takes her to Master Arnor, the archivist.

> Master Arnor was a fusser: he wanted to know why Menolly was to have sheets; apprentices had to learn how to copy properly on old hides before they could be entrusted with the precious sheets; what was the hurry about? And why hadn't Master Robinton told him himself if it was all this important? And a girl? Yes, yes, he'd heard of Menolly. He'd seen her in the dining hall, same as he saw all those nuisancy apprentices and holder girls and, oh, well, all right, here was tool and ink, but she wasn't to waste it now, or he'd have to make more and that was a lengthy process and apprentices never paid close attention to the simmering and if the solution boiled, it would be ruined and fade too soon and oh, he didn't know what the world was coming to!

And there's another asshole in the Hall with actual power. This time, we're supposed to pass it off as Arnor just being nervous about everything and he would never trust his precious things to any apprentice, much less the untrained and musically hopeless paying students. But there it is again, that institutional sexism that automatically makes girls lesser. That invisibles women in roles outside the kitchen, despite their singing prowess, and that prevents even the possibility of gender parity at the Hall.

_[Furthermore, Arnor is a pretty solid image of the fussy librarian, the stereotype of someone who couldn't hack it at some other, more appropriately manly pursuit, and is therefore handling the books and music and all of those archival things that would eventually pass, in 20th c. Terra, to women who could be paid less for the job and told that they were specially suited for the call as the justification for it. I didn't notice it at the original time, but just about any time we come across the Master Archivist in the Harper Hall, it's this sort of fussy librarian stereotype. Given how much Pern trucks in base stereotype, I shouldn't be surprised, and yet, every time I go back, there's some new horror waiting for me.]_

After collecting her copying tools and sheets, Menolly sets to work, even as she overhears some discussion by the senior staff (and Silvina) and others about posting journeymen. Just as she finishes, Domick arrives to take her copies and push her off to quartet practice, with a call back to Menolly's self-criticism about dynamic levels. Where Talmor and Sebell seem to be sniping at each other overtly, as if something's changed between them. After practice, Menolly hits the chow hall, where Piemur has been restored to his usual place by all the women, now that Pona had been dismissed from the Hall.

> The thin knot of worry in her middle grew larger and colder. Pona in the cot, contained by the discipline of the Harper Hall, was bad enough, but, in her grandfather's Hold, pouring out acid vengeance, she was much more dangerous for Harper apprentice, Menolly.  
>  "Naw, not just yesterday," Piemur said firmly. "So don't you go feeling guilty about it. But yesterday was the final crack, the way I heard it, bearing false witness against you. And Dunca's been raked over by Silvina! That pleased her to no end; she's just been itching to take Dunca down."  
>  [...Menolly takes the seat next to Audiva, noticing that Audiva is getting the silent treatment from Pona's lieutenant...]  
>  As she stepped to the place, she caught Briala's startled, antagonistic glance. The dark girl nudged her neighbor, Amania, who also turned to glare at Menolly. But Menolly smiled at Audiva and, as she stood by the tall craft-girl, she felt Audiva's hand fumble for hers and the grateful pressure of her fingers. Stealing a sideways glance, she noticed that Audiva's eyes looked red and her cheeks showed the puffiness of recent and prolonged weeping.

Uh, Piemur, did you forget what happened yesterday, how easily Pona manipulated others, and what Menolly said about her family in relation to her talent? Why would Menolly willingly want a loose cannon out in the world to spread lies about her to an audience that is predisposed to believing those lies about her?

In slightly happier news, Menolly is once again the carrier of empathy, noticing Audiva is getting the same treatment that Menolly got for sticking up for her. We're still unhappy that empathy is still a scarce resource here. The meal proceeds with Piemur filling the space with talk, as Briala pointedly ignores it all, and Piemur is angling to get a fire lizard, since his high singing voice won't last forever. Piemur baits Briala by pointing out that Menolly being Robinton's apprentice confers some status, and Briala takes the bait by intimating that Pona's grandfather will put his resources to trying to hurt Menolly. Audiva and Menolly strike an agreement for Menolly to tutor Audiva in her spare time, because Menolly considers Audiva to be the only girl worth a damn in playing, and Audiva is the only one in the group that actually wants to get better.

Now fed, Menolly and her fair share a happy set of images involving playing in the lake with Merga, Groghe's fire lizard, before her lesson with Shonagar. Who has, to this point, been the only Master who hasn't been an obvious asshole to Menolly. Surely he won't close the loop.

> "So, you return to me? After **singing** at the gather?"  
>  "Wasn't I supposed to sing?" Menolly halted so abruptly in her astonishment at the reprimand in his voice that Beauty cheeped in alarm.  
>  "You are never to sing without my express permission." The massive fist connected with the tabletop.  
>  "But the Masterharper himself..."  
>  "Is Master Robinton your voice instructor? Or am I?" The bellowed question rocked her back on her heels.  
>  "You are, sir. I only thought..."  
>  "You thought? I do the thinking while you are my student...and you will remain my student for some time, young woman, until your voice is properly trained for your duties as a harper! Do I make myself clear?"  
>  "Yes, sir. I'm very sorry, sir. I didn't know I was disobeying..."  
>  "Well," and his tone abruptly modified to one of such benevolence that Menolly again stared in disbelief, "I hadn't actually mentioned that I didn't consider you ready to sing in public yet. So I accept your apology."  
>  Menolly gulped, grateful for the reprieve.  
>  "You didn't, all things considered, perform too badly yesterday," he went on.  
>  "You heard me?"  
>  "Of course I heard you!" The fist landed again on the table, though with less force than the previous thump. "I hear every singing voice in this Hall. Your phrasing was atrocious. I think we'd better go over that song now so that you can correct your interpretation." He heaved a sigh of profound resignation. "You will undoubtedly be obliged to sing it again in public; that's obvious, since you wrote it, and it is undeniably popular. So you might just as well learn to sing it **well**! Now, we shall start with breathing exercises. And we can't," another crash on the sandtable, "do that when you're halfway across the hall and trembling all over. I won't eat you, girl," he added in the gentlest of the voices he had yet used in her presence. A slight smile parted his lips. "But I will," and his tone took on a sterner note, "teach you to make the most of your voice."  
>  Although the lesson began with a totally unexpected scolding, Menolly left Master Shonagar's presence with a feeling of considerable accomplishment. [...] By the end of the lesson, Menolly stood in further awe of Master Shonagar's musical acumen. He had drawn from her melody every particle nuisance and shading of tone, heightening its total impact.

Of course he can.

> DARK HELMET: How many assholes do we got on this ship, anyway?  
>  [BRIDGE CREW all jump to their feet and raise a hand]  
>  BRIDGE CREW: YO!  
>  DARK HELMET: I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes!

Any previous charitable interpretation of Shonagar is _revoked_ , effective immediately. I'm surprised Shonagar didn't get a face full of fire lizards for this performance, considering that Menolly is showing visible signs of fear in his presence. But Shonagar is quick to reassure us that he's not actually going to hurt the girl with the abusive past, and the narrative follows that up immediately with "Menolly learned a lot in the lesson, so see? Totally not a problem." Except, no, the reason that works is because Menolly is used to dealing with abusive assholes that hold power over her, when it comes to finding ways to pursue her musical passions, not because the abusive assholes aren't going to hurt her.

It appears the author cannot write a character with power without first removing their capacity for empathy. And some amount of their brain, as well, because the senior staff really should know what kind of background Menolly is coming from, and exactly who they will be answering to if Menolly has a bad time.

Only one more scene to go before the end of the chapter, and it's Audiva coming by for a tutoring lesson, and to properly apologize and make friends with Menolly, which she apparently can now that Audiva has become the outcast and target of the remaining Mean Girl Squad and their "poisonous atmosphere". Menolly is still worried about Pona, which Audiva says should be no problem, because Menolly is Robinton's apprentice and because Pona lied, not anything Menolly did. Which is, again, focusing on the wrong thing. It doesn't matter if Pona is lying if it becomes a question of her word against Menolly's. The others are much more likely to believe the slander if it comes from someone high-ranking and of their world. Audiva saw it at work, and yet she says the same thing Piemur did.

Audiva gushes over Menolly's new song, and there is the settling of accounts and offenses, which Menolly wipes because, well...

> "Let's forget everything else...and just be friends. I've never had a girl friend before," Menolly added shyly.  
>  "You haven't?" Audiva was shocked. "Weren't you fostered out?"  
>  "No, being the youngest and Half-Circle being so isolated and with Thread falling, and that's what the Harper usually does, and Petiron never..."

So, right from the beginning, Yanus intended to keep control over his kids, with Thread and an aging Harper as convenient excuses, not that he didn't have more of them. Menolly is just completely isolated from the world outside. Just so that she didn't get competing ideas about life. Fuck you, Yanus.

The tutoring commences, and we find that Menolly is not very good at all in teaching, because she suffers from the inability to translate her expertise into something that Audiva, the beginner, can follow and use. Which is pretty true - the vocabulary and actions of an expert are often so automatic that someone just trying to learn may not be able to do much with it. Beginners learn from someone of intermediate skill best, because the intermediate players can probably still see and understand the beginner's mind.

Chapter 10 closes with Menolly feeding herself and the fire lizards and then going to bed, still worried about the damage Pona can do. One more chapter to go.


	10. Fate of the Unknown / Dearly Beloved [Reprise] / Sunset Horizons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Fate of the Unknown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrNU8GmfSxU). Which happens right before the post-credits music, [Dearly Beloved [Reprise]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4WW3Ht7CLU). Because there's still one more success for Menolly to have.
> 
> Of course, since we're not done, there's also the stinger that leads into the next book, [Sunset Horizons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0h_fzHKSQ).

Last chapter, Menolly made a friend. Who was her first girl friend in fifteen Turns. Because that girl had been excluded from the Mean Girl Squad for sticking up for Menolly. The leader of said squad has been dismissed from the Harper Hall, which only really set her loose on the world to continue her campaign of venom. Not that we will hear from her again.

And Shonagar completed the circle of fifths - of alcohol, one bottle for each Master and their sexism.

**Dragonsinger: Chapter 11: Content Notes: No notes**

So here we are, the last chapter. We still have failed to go an entire book without a female character suffering abuse because of heterodox ideas.

The action, such that it is, is short. Domick wants Menolly to copy out many copies of the sea song she sang at the gather and a couple more of the fire lizard song. Which, surprisingly, leads to Menolly having a thought about home.

> Sea songs inland and land songs on the seaside, thought Menolly as she climbed the steps to her room. She wondered just how Yanus, her father, would approve of land songs at Half-Circle Sea Hold. Well and good, and wouldn't it be the best of all jokes if the land songs introduced at Half-Circle by Harper Elgion were ones she herself had written or copied out? Disgrace the Hold, indeed!  
>  Now she wondered if she should write her mother, Mavi, or her sister, and just casually mention that she was apprentice to the Masterharper of Pern. That all her twiddles and tunings had considerably more merit than anyone at Half-Circle had the wit to appreciate. Except, of course, Harper Elgion. And Alemi, her brother.  
>  No, she wouldn't write her mother or her father, and certainly not her sister. But she might write Alemi. He'd been the only one who cared. And he'd keep the knowledge to himself.

Assuming that Yanus doesn't intercept all the mail and read it first for subversive messages, that is. Truthfully, though, I'd rather see Menolly tell off her entire family to their faces, with as much pomp, circumstance, and buildup as possible. Of course, the narrative would hasten to tell us that Menolly is no better than Pona by doing this, no matter how much Yanus deserves to have his bell rung repeatedly by his youngest daughter. Maybe Menolly's sister could be fostered out with Pona, so the two of them could spit acid at each other as much as they wanted.

Menolly copies out the music, and Domick asks for more before the supper bell, along with a boast about how the Harper Hall is in the business of expanding knowledge, and that Domick knows Menolly's songs are necessary and good. Menolly is able to produce the extra copies after her lesson with Shonagar, and then has to feed the fire lizards. Dragonriders arrive at the Hall, since tonight is the night where journeymen receive their assignments. T'gellan arrives with a pair of boots, in Harper blue, for Menolly from Benden, which is a reminder that only seven days time has elapsed since the beginning of the book. More on time later.

It's assignment dinner, which means the Mean Girl Squad continues their silent treatment and Piemur gets to expound again about Robinton's plan to send his journeymen and music around so that everyone gets cross-crafted. Robinton sends out the journeymen - three to Telgar, (one for a hold, one for the Minercrafthall to improve the metals sent for instruments, and the archivist's senior journeyman to Wansor, the Starsmith we met in Dragonquest), two to Igen, one to Bitra, and one to Lemos to work with Benelek, a woodsmith, who chooses the wood for the Hall. The journeyman is to assist in that selection for Jerint's benefit.

Then comes the special announcement from Robinton.

> "To be a Harper requires many talents, as you all ought to realize by now," and he frowned at the very youngest of the apprentices who giggled nervously. "Not all of these skills need to be learned within these walls. Indeed, many of our most valuable lessons are more forcefully learned at some distance from this hallowed Hall," and he frowned at the journeymen, who grinned back at him. "However, when the fundamentals of our craft have been well and truly learned, I insist that we hold no one back from the rank they are entitled to by knowledge and ability, and in this case, rare talent. Sebell, Talmor, since neither of you will resign in the other's favor..."  
>  A silence emphasized by Piemur's tiny gap of astonishment fell over the dining hall as Sebell and Talmor rose from their table and walked up the aisle by the hearth. They stopped. Startled, Menolly looked up at Sebell's shy grin and Talmor's broad smile.  
>  [...]  
>  "Menolly's a journeyman! Menolly's a journeyman!" echoed the other apprentices, clapping their hands on rhythm to their chant. "Menolly's made journeyman. Walk, Menolly, walk. Walk, Menolly, walk!"  
>  [...]  
>  The last vestige of anxiety lifted from Menolly's mind. As a journeyman in blue, she had rank and status enough to fear no one and nothing. No further need to run or hide.

And roll credits! Menolly has, in seven days, gone from being the runaway girl with the fire lizards to a journeyman Harper, now secure in her status no matter where she goes. She's overcome all sorts of obstacles and we should feel good about her. And we can be proud of her for overcoming all those narrative-mandated problems.

**_But..._ **

In terms of plot, we've spent two books on Menolly, and we haven't received a real reason to believe that she's important in the grand scheme of things. 

Menolly is:

  * An abuse survivor
  * [An exemplar of the Disney Princess female power fantasy](http://trashyinpink.blogspot.be/2014/06/the-illustrated-guide-to-female-power_3.html)
  * A girl with nine fire lizards, who is becoming the foremost expert in their care, feeding, and training.
  * A journeyman-rank Harper



None of which necessarily says that Menolly is important to the overarching plot.

Most crucially, though, is the timeline of the books so far. We started the Harper Hall trilogy in roughly the same time as Dragonquest, but we've taken two books to get up to the end of Dragonquest. Which runs the risk of turning the entire Harper Hall Trilogy into a [Gaiden Game](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GaidenGame/), where we don't actually have to have read the stories here to be able to follow the main plot of the series. The next book is going to be the first opportunity, it seems, for the plot to advance past the points where it has already been.

That's fairly insulting to Menolly - all this strife and problems and abuse for her on camera, only for her entire story not to matter in the slightest? That's not a good way to write your books. Or to develop your characters, even if it is consistently the way the narrative has been treating its women characters.

Next time, we get to find out whether or not we've wasted all this time on books that ultimately don't matter.


End file.
